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SKETCHES   IN   THE 

EVOLUTION    OF    ENGLISH 
CONGEEGATIONALISM 


J^^.^^£^  t^Cr/3^ 


SKETCHES    IN    THE 

EVOLUTION  OF  ENGLISH 
CONGEEOATIONALISM 

Cateto  lecture  for  1900-01 

DELIVERED  IN 

HARTPORD   THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARY 
CONNECTICUT 


By   ALEXANDER   MACKENNAL,  D.D. 

Author  of 

"The  Story  of  the  Emjlish  Separatists,"  "Homes  and 

Haunts  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,"  dx. 


BOSTON 

CONGREGATIONAL   SUNDAY-SCHOOL  AND 

PUBLISHING   SOCIETY 


Printed  by  Bali.antynk,  Hanson  &^  Co. 
At  the  Ballantyiie  Tress 


CD 
CD 


KWo.s 


TO  THE  REV.  CHESTER  D.  HARTRANFT 
AND  THE  FACULTY  HE  PRESIDES  OVER 
THIS  VOLUME  IS  DEDICATED  IN 
ADMIRATION  OF  THEIR  WORK  AND 
REMEMBRANCE    OF  THEIR   FRIENDSHIP 


309881 


Ipreface 

The  Carew  Lecture  was  founded  in  the  year 
1873,  to  enable  "occasional  instruction"  to  be 
given  to  the  students  of  the  Theological  Insti- 
tute of  Connecticut,  now  the  Hartford  Theo- 
logical Seminary  ;  and  the  trust  provided  that 
the  Lectures  be  open  to  the  public. 

The  object  of  the  present  Lecture  is  to 
"instruct  the  students"  and  others  as  to  the 
spiritual  forces  and  conditions  which  have  made 
English  Congregationalism  what  it  is  to-day  ; 
giving  only  so  much  of  the  history  as  would 
make  the  course  of  the  development  clear. 

The  Lecturer  believes  that  as  many  English- 
men as  Americans  will  be  interested  in  this 
special  treatment  of  his  theme. 

The  subjects  sketched,  and  the  proportion 
observed  in  their  treatment,  have  been  partly 
determined  by  the  fact  that  the  Lecturer  had 
in  view  an  American  audience  and  Eniilish 
readers. 


viii  PREFACE 

In  treating  of  Robert  Browne  and  his  con- 
temporaries, it  has  not  been  found  possible  to 
avoid  saying  over  again  some  things  already- 
said  in  "  The  Story  of  the  English  Separatists." 
The  quotation  on  pages  70  and  71  is  from  that 
book. 


Contents 


LECTURE  I 

I'AGK 

The  Problem  of  the  English  Reformation        .        .        i 


LECTURE   II 
Congregationalism  before  Robert  Browne         .        ,      41 

LECTURE  III 
Presbyterians  and  Independents  ....      83 

LECTURE   IV 
Reactions  and  Revival 125 

LECTURE   V 

Congeegationalists  and  Anglicans       .        .        .        .167 

LECTURE   VI 

SEVENTEl'iNTH    CeNTURY   INDEPENDENTS   AND   TWENTIETH 

Century  Congregationalists        .        .  -213 


LECTURE'  I 

THE    PROBLEM    OE   THE    ENGLISH 
REEORMATION 


A 


Arclibishop  Sandys's  perplexity — Tlie  Primitive  Church 
aud  Tudor  England — Sandys's  Protestantism — His  Courage 
— Eesidence  in  Strasburg — His  Return  to  England — Church 
Preferment  under  Elizabeth — The  Sorrows  of  Preferment — 
The  Reformer  thwarted  by  the  Queen — Sandys's  Self-dis- 
satisfaction— Archbishop  Grindal  also  an  Uneasy  Man — 
Reason  of  their  Inconsistency — Conscience  and  Patriotism — 
Sir  Edwin  Sandys's  Europx  Speculum — Power  of  Calvinism 
— Calvinism  as  an  Ecclesiastical  System — Ecclesiastical 
Calvinism  and  Eni^lish  Puritanism — Thomas  Cartwright — 
Fruitless  Efforts  of  Puritans  to  direct  the  English  Reforma- 
tion— "  Why  did  they  remain  in  the  Church  ? " — Conscience 
and  Patriotism — The  Conscience  of  the  Separatists — Their 
Patriotism  —  The  Separatists  were  true  Englishmen  — 
Nationalists,  Puritans,  and  Separatists  contribute  to  Eng- 
lish Progress — The  Political  Foresight  of  the  Separatists — 
M.  Borgeaud  on  the  Mayflower  Compact. 


LECTUllE  I 

THE   PROBLEiVI    OF  THE   ENGLISH 
REFORMATION 

I 

Archbishop  Sandys,  under  whose  son,  Sir 
Samuel  Sandys,  Elder  Brewster  and  his  father 
occupied  the  mansion-house  of  Scroby,  wrote 
the  following  w^ords  in  the  preamble  to  his 
will:  "The  state  of  a  small  private  church, 
and  the  form  of  a  learned  Christian  kingdom, 
neither  would  long  like  nor  can  at  all  brook 
one  and  the  same  ecclesiastical  government." 
The  sentence  will  appear  to  some  a  truism ; 
others  will  think  it  oracular,  and  suspect  its 
motive ;  we  may  even  fancy  it  to  be  one  of 
those  epigrams  in  which  a  clever  man  suggests 
an  excuse  for  occupying  a  position  he  is  not 
satisfied  with.  Standing,  however,  in  his 
solemn  will  and  testament,  dated  not  quite  a 
year  before  his  death,   and  read  in  connection 


4  THE  PROBLEM  OF 

with  the  whole   preamble,  the  words   are    not 
without  a  certain  pathos. 

Sandys  began  his  public  life  a  zealous  and 
thorough-going  Protestant  Reformer.  He  was 
Vice-Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Cambridge 
in  the  hopeful  days  of  King  Edward  VI.,  and 
pressed  for  the  removal  of  everything  that 
savoured  of  Popery  in  the  English  Church. 
At  Edward's  death  he  preached  a  sermon  on 
the  proclamation  of  the  Lady  Jane  Grey  as 
queen  ;  hoping  that  her  accession  would  secure 
the  triumph  of  Protestantism.  Two  days  after, 
when  he  was  sending  off  his  sermon  to  London 
for  printing,  a  university  "  bedellus "  "came 
weeping  to  him,  and  prayed  him  to  shift  for 
himself,"  for  Queen  Mary  was  proclaimed.  He 
knew  that  his  life  was  in  danger ;  but  "  he 
was  not  troubled  herewithal,"  says  his  con- 
temporary Fox,  "  for  he  had  ever  a  man's 
courage,  and  could  not  be  terrified."  "  My 
life,"  he  affirmed,  "  is  not  dear  unto  me,  neither 
have  I  done  or  said  anything  that  urgeth  my 
conscience.  For  that  which  I  spoke  of  the 
State  I  have  instructions  warranted  by  the 
subscription  of  sixteen  counsellors  ;  neither  can 
speech  be  treason,  neither  yet  have  I  spoken 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION  5 

further  than  the  Word  of  God  and  the  laws  of 
the  realm  doth  warrant  me,  come  of  me  what 
God  will." 

After  an  imprisonment  of  many  weeks  he 
went  away  to  Antwerp,  only  just  escaping  the 
officers  who  were  sent  to  reapprehend  him,  and 
who  saw  the  sails  of  the  ship  that  was  carrying 
him  off.  King  Philip  of  Spain,  Mary's  affianced 
husband,  searched  Antwerp  for  him,  and  Sandys 
went  to  Strasburg.  While  making  this  his 
home  for  a  season,  he  sought  acquaintance  with 
some  Continental  Reformers,  Peter  Martyr  and 
Bullinger  among  them.  He  was  in  Peter 
Martyr's  house  when  word  was  brought  him 
that  Queen  Mary  had  died.  "He  took  his 
leave,  and  returned  to  Strausborough,  where 
he  preached,  and  so  Master  Grindall  and  he 
came  towards  England,  and  came  to  London 
the  same  day  that  Q)ueen  Elizabeth  was 
crowmed." 

His  Protestant  zeal  had  been  refreshed  by 
four  years'  intercourse  with  the  Continental 
Reformers  ;  it  was  tempered  by  his  knowledge 
of  causes  of  dissension  among  the  English  con- 
gregations in  Germany  and  Switzerland ;  but 
he  was  full  of  hope  for  England  under  the  new 


6  THE  PROBLEM  OF 

queen.  Elizabeth  received  him  graciously,  and 
made  him  one  of  her  commissioners  for  revising 
the  Common  Prayer ;  in  other  ways  he  was 
soon  fully  employed  about  the  reformation  of 
religion.  He  hesitated  in  accepting  a  bishopric, 
because  of  his  dislike  of  the  vestments  of  the 
priesthood  and  the  ornaments  of  public  worship. 
After  he  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  Worcester 
he  almost  lost  his  preferment  by  opposing  the 
Queen,  w^ho  retained  the  crucifix  in  her  private 
chapel,  and  was  for  keeping  this  symbol  and 
imao;es  of  the  saints  in  the  churches.  "  As  to 
myself,"  he  writes  Peter  Martyr,  "  because  I 
was  rather  vehement  in  this  matter,  and  could 
by  no  means  consent  that  an  occasion  of  stumb- 
linsj  should  be  afforded  to  the  Church  of  Christ, 
I  was  very  near  being  deposed  from  my  office 
and  incurring  the  displeasure  of  the  Queen. 
But  God,  in  whose  hand  are  the  hearts  of 
kings,  gave  us  tranquillity  instead  of  a  tem- 
pest, and  delivered  the  Church  of  England 
from  stumbling-blocks  of  this  kind  ;  only  the 
popish  vestments  remain  in  our  Church — I  mean 
the  copes,  which,  however,  we  hope  will  not 
last  very  long."  He  spoke  from  his  See  against 
the  compulsory  imposition   of  conformity  ;   he 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION  7 

declared  that  "the  bishops  woukl  give  up  their 
livings  rather  than  swear  that  the  Queen  was 
supreme  head  of  the  Church  ;  "  in  the  Convoca- 
tion of  I  562  he  presented  a  paper  recommending 
the  adoption  of  an  improved  system  of  ecclesi- 
astical government  and  discipline.  So  brave 
were  his  beginnings. 

From  Worcester  he  was  removed  to  the  more 
important  See  of  London,  following  Grindal,  who 
had  been  made  Archbishop  of  York.  And  when 
Grindal  was  promoted  to  Canterbury  in  1576, 
he  again  succeeded  him  as  Archbishop  of  York. 
He  held  this  preferment  twelve  years ;  the  whole 
length  of  his  Episcopate  was  nearly  thirty  years. 
He  died  "  Primate  of  England  "  ;  it  was  thought 
he  would  liave  been  made  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury and  "  Primate  of  all  England "  when 
Grindal  died.  But  his  warmth  of  temper  was 
a  difficulty  ;  there  was  another  difficulty  in 
Queen  Elizabeth's  reluctance  to  make  a  married 
man  the  first  ecclesiastical  personage  of  the 
realm. 

Sandys  was  well  able  to  appreciate  his  suc- 
cesses. Lie  was  born  in  a  Cumbrian  hall ;  liis 
mother  was  a  descendant  of  the  ancient  barons 
of  Kendal.     He  was  of  the  class  of  old  English 


8  THE  PROBLEM  OF 

gentry  who  think  that  their  ancestry  and  local 
influence  make  them  at  least  the  equals  of  the 
aristocracy.  It  is  a  class  which  has  given 
many  members  to  the  higher  ranks  in  the 
Church  and  in  the  law,  who  take  precedence 
among  peers.  His  family  is  still  connected 
with  Hawkshead,  where  the  archbishop  founded 
the  grammar-school  in  which  the  "poet's  mind" 
awoke  in  Wordsworth,  and  there  Sandys's  por- 
trait is  to  be  seen.  But  his  prosperity  did 
not  bring  him  happiness.  He  found  himself 
entangled  in  the  perplexities  of  high  life,  and 
could  not  always  get  men  to  see  that  he  was 
walking  straight.  Before  he  was  fully  in- 
stalled in  the  archbishopric  he  had  to  resist 
an  attempt  by  the  Crown  to  acquire  the  palace 
of  Bishopthorp.  Then  came  a  disagreement 
with  Grindal  about  dilapidations,  which  are 
so  serious  a  charge  on  all  English  benefices. 
He  quarrelled  with  Aylmer,  his  successor  in 
the  See  of  London,  over  both  dilapidations  and 
arrears.  The  Queen  wished  him  to  grant  her 
a  lease  of  Scroby  Manor,  an  appanage  of  the 
Archbishopric  of  York,  and  he  refused  because 
of  the  injury  which  would  be  done  to  the 
See.      The  loss  would  be   many  thousands  of 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION  9 

pounds — "too  much,  Most  Gracious  Sovereign, 
too  much  to  pull  from  a  bishoprick  inferior 
to  many  others  in  revenue,  but  superior  in 
charge  and  countenance."  A  month  after  writ- 
ing  this  letter  he  leased  the  manor  to  his  son 
for  a  rent  of  ^65,  6s.  8d.  Of  course  his  in- 
consistency was  commented  on.  "  He  was 
the  first  Protestant  bishop,"  says  Mr.  Hunter,^ 
"who  raised  a  powerful  family  out  of  the 
goods  of  the  Church."  Six  sons  enjoyed  leases 
of  the  episcopal  lands.  'J'hey  were  men  of 
merit,  and  they  won  distinction ;  their  emi- 
nence kept  people  mindful  of  the  start  their 
father  had  given  them  in  life.  Sandys  was, 
moreover,  a  passionate  man,  and  made  enemies ; 
plots  were  laid  for  him,  and  malignant  charges 
brought  against  him. 

He  does  not  refer  to  any  of  these  matters 
in  his  will,  but  he  is  very  anxious  to  clear 
himself  from  the  suspicion  of  insincerity  or 
time-serving.  Ilis  earnestness  betokens  a  heart 
ill  at  ease,  if  not  a  troubled  conscience.  "  Be- 
cause I  have  lived  an  old  man  in  the  ministry 
of  Christ,  a  faitlifiil   disposer  of  the  mysteries 

^  "The  Founders  of  New  Plymouth,".  l)y  the  Mcv.  Josejih 
Hunter,  F.S.A.L.     Loudon  :  John  llussell  Smith,  1854.     P.  22. 


lo  THE  PROBLEM  OF 

of  God  and  to  my  power  an  earnest  labourer 
in  the  vineyard  of  the  Lord,  I  testify  before 
God  and  His  angels  and  men  of  this  world 
I  rest  resolute  and  yield  up  my  spirit  in  that 
doctrine  which  I  have  privately  studied  and 
publicly  preached,  and  which  is  this  day  main- 
tained in  the  Church  of  England.  ...  I  have 
not  laboured  to  please  man,  but  studied  to 
please  my  Master,  who  sent  me  not  to  flatter 
either  prince  or  people.  .  .  .  Concerning  rites 
and  ceremonies  by  political  constitutions  autho- 
rised among  us,  as  I  am  and  have  been  per- 
suaded that  such  as  are  now  set  down  by 
public  authority  in  this  Church  of  England  are 
no  way  either  ungodly  or  unlawful,  but  may 
w^ith  good  conscience,  for  order  and  obedience' 
sake,  be  used  of  a  good  Christian  ...  so  have 
I  ever  been,  and  presently  am  persuaded  that 
some  of  them  be  not  so  expedient  in  this  Church 
now,  but  that  in  the  Church  reformed,  and  in 
all  this  time  of  the  Gospel  (wherein  the  seed 
of  the  Scripture  hath  so  long  been  sown),  they 
may  better  be  disused  by  little  and  little  than 
more  and  more  urged."  A  reference  to  the 
Puritans  follows,  in  which  is  the  sentence 
quoted    at    the    beginning    of    this    Lecture  : 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION  ii 

*'  Howbeit,  as  I  do  easily  acknowledge  our 
ecclesiastical  policy  in  some  points  may  be 
bettered,  so  do  I  utterly  mislike,  even  in  my 
conscience,  all  such  rude  and  indigested  plat- 
forms as  have  been  more  lately  and  boldly  than 
either  learnedly  or  wisely  preferred,  tending 
not  to  the  reformation,  but  to  the  destruction 
of  the  Church  of  England.  The  particularities 
of  both  sorts  [doctrine  and  discipline]  reserved 
to  the  discretion  of  the  godly  wise,  of  the  latter 
I  only  say  thus,  that  the  state  of  a  small 
private  church,  and  the  form  of  a  learned 
Christian  kingdom,  neither  would  long  like  nor 
can  at  all  brook  one  and  the  same  ecclesiasti- 
cal government."  "  Thus  much,"  he  continues, 
"  I  thought  good  to  testify  concerning  these 
ecclesiastical  matters,  to  clear  me  from  all 
suspicion  of  double  and  indirect  dealing  in 
the  house  of  God,  wherein  as  touching  mine 
office  I  have  not  halted,  but  walked  sincerely 
according  to  that  skill  and  ability  which  I 
received  at  God's  merciful  hands.  Lord,  as 
a  great  sinner  by  reason  of  my  frail  ilesh 
and  manifold  infirmities,  1  lice  unto  Thee 
for  mercy.  Lord,  forgive  me  my  sins,  for 
I   acknowledge   my   sins.      Lord,    perform  Thy 


12  THE  PROBLEM  OF 

promise,  and  do  away  all  mine  iniquities. 
Haste  the  coming  of  Thy  Christ,  and  deliver 
me  from  this  body  of  sin  :  Veni  cito,  Domine 
Jesu.  Clothe  me  with  immortality,  and  give 
that  promised  crow^n  of  glory.      So  be  it." 

Archbishop  Sandys  was  by  no  means  an  ex- 
ceptional personage  among  the  ecclesiastical 
dignitaries  of  that  time.  The  Queen  appointed 
with  him  as  her  first  bishops.  Jewel,  Grindal, 
Horn,  Cox,  Parkhurst,  and  Beutham.  They 
w^ere  all  men  pledged  to  the  religious  Reforma- 
tion, which  Wyclif  had  begun  ;  which  Henry 
Vni.,  without  intending  it,  reinvigorated ;  which 
was  advanced  by  Edward  VI. ;  opposed  by  Mary 
Tudor ;  and  ultimately  checked  by  the  im- 
perious temper  and  autocratic  rule  of  Eliza- 
beth. They  remonstrated  with  the  Queen,  and 
exhorted  Parliament  to  do  away  with  all  the 
remnants  of  Popery  in  worship,  to  grant  some 
liberty  to  conscience,  to  encourage  evangelical 
preaching ;  their  language  was  sometimes  vehe- 
ment, it  always  has  the  tone  of  sincerity.  They 
were  equally  concerned  over  the  assumption  by 
the  Queen's  courts  of  authority  to  determine  the 
practice  of  the  clergy  and  the  discipline  of  the 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION  13 

Church.  The  Zurich  Letters  are  full  of  lamenta- 
tions about  their  pitiable  plight.  Jewel  writes  : 
"  As  heretofore  Christ  was  cast  out  by  His 
enemies,  so  He  is  now  kept  out  by  His  friends." 
"  That  little  cross  of  ill  omen  still  maintains 
its  place  in  the  Queen's  chapel.  Wretched  me  ! 
this  thing  will  soon  be  drawn  into  a  precedent." 
"  I  wish  that  all,  even  the  slightest  vestiges,  of 
Popery  might  be  removed  from  our  churches 
and,  above  all,  from  our  minds.  But  the  Queen 
will  not  endure  the  least  alteration  in  matters  of 
religion."  Grindal  and  Horn,  in  a  joint  letter 
to  Bullinger  and  Gualter,  say :  "  We  most 
solemnly  make  oath  that  we  have  hitherto 
laboured  with  all  earnestness,  fidelity,  and 
diligence  to  efiect  what  our  brethren  require. 
But  now  we  are  brousrht  into  such  straits,  what 
is  to  be  done  we  leave  you  to  conjecture ;  but 
since  we  cannot  do  what  we  would,  we  should 
do  in  the  Lord  what  we  can."  "  Although  we 
are  unable  to  remove  all  the  abuses  of  this 
fiscal  court,  as  also  some  others,  yet  we  do  not 
cease  to  find  fault  with  and  censure  them,  and 
send  them  back  to  that  liell  from  whence  they 
proceeded."  These  strong  words  are  associated 
with  others  in  which  they  try  to  justify  their 


14  THE  PROBLEM  OF 

conformity  :  they  speak  of  the  necessity  of  their 
continuing  in  office  and  conciliating  the  Queen  ; 
their  fear  lest  public  disputing  should  alienate 
the  minds  of  the  nobility,  and  encourage  the 
papal  party ;  and  they  declare  that,  in  their 
administration  of  their  bishoprics,  they  leave 
every  minister  "at  liberty  to  speak  against  all 
matters  of  this  kind,  [so  as  it  is  done]  with 
modesty  and  sobriety  " ;  "we  by  no  means  de- 
prive of  their  office  those  ministers  who  refuse 
to  receive  or  approve  of  those  articles  falsely 
ascribed  to  us."  They  would  have  been  glad 
if  they  could  have  won  from  Peter  Martyr, 
Bullinger,  and  Gualter  even  a  qualified  approval 
of  a  position  which  they  felt  so  burdensome 
to  their  conscience. 

Between  Grindal  and  the  Queen  there  was 
at  last  an  open  rupture.  He  had  not  been  at 
Canterbury  a  year  when  Elizabeth  ordered  him 
to  suppress  the  "prophesyings,"  or  public  preach- 
ings, in  assemblies  specially  gathered  for  the 
purpose.  "  She  thought  these  meetings  gave 
encouragement  to  novelty " ;  that  people's 
"  curiosity  was  too  much  indulged,  and  their 
heads  overcharged  with  notions,  by  these  dis- 
courses."     She   did   not    love    appeals   to   the 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION  15 

public  of  any  sort,  fearing  national  disturbance. 
She  thought  that  three  or  four  preachers  in  a 
county  might  be  enough ;  and  that  homilies, 
prepared  for  the  clergy,  should  be  read  by  them 
instead  of  their  using  free  speech.  Grindal, 
who  would  have  had  every  minister  a  preacher, 
able  to  deliver  his  own  discourses,  refused  to 
comply,  and  wrote  a  long  letter  to  Elizabeth 
on  the  subject.  Thomas  Fuller  has  commented 
on  this  letter  :  "  What  could  be  written  with 
more  spirit  or  less  animosity,  more  humility 
and  less  dejection  ?  I  see  a  lamb  in  his  own 
can  be  a  lion  in  God  and  his  Church's  cause." 
"All  the  archbishop  could  say  or  write,"  to 
quote  Strype,  "  moved  not  the  Queen  from  her 
resolution  ;  but  she  seemed  much  offended  with 
him,  and  resolved  to  have  him  suspended  and 
sequestered  ;  and  seeing  he  would  not  be  instru- 
mental in  it,  sent  her  own  commandment,  by 
her  letters,  to  the  rest  of  the  bishops,  wholly 
to  put  down  the  exercises."  Grindal  was  ad- 
vised by  the  Lord  Treasurer  Burleigh  to  submit 
to  the  (^ueen,  but  he  would  not ;  he  had  done 
nothing  amiss,  he  said,  and  refused  to  ask 
pardon  which  supposed  a  fault.  The  opinion 
of  the  Queen's  counsellors  was  against  depriving 


1 6  THE  PROBLEM  OF 

him  of  his  office,  but  he  continued  either 
wholly,  or  in  part,  disabled  from  the  exercise 
of  it.  It  is  creditable  to  Whitgift,  who  was 
nominated  as  his  successor,  that  he  would  not 
enter  on  the  See  w^hile  Grindal  was  alive. 
Thomas  Fuller  gives  us  a  last  picture  of  him  : 
"Being  really  blind,  more  with  grief  than  age, 
he  was  willing  to  put  oft'  his  clothes  before  he 
went  to  bed,  and  in  his  lifetime  to  resign  his 
place  to  Dr.  Whitgift,  who  refused  such  accept- 
ance thereof.  And  the  Queen,  commiserating 
his  condition,  was  graciously  pleased  to  say, 
that  as  she  had  made  him,  so  he  should  die 
an  archbishop;  as  he  did,  July  6,  1583, 
Worldly  wealth  he  cared  not  for,  desiring  only 
to  make  both  ends  meet ;  and  as  for  that  little 
that  lapped  over,  he  gave  it  to  pious  uses  in 
both  universities,  and  the  founding  of  a  fair 
free  -  school  at  St.  Bees,  the  place  of  his 
nativity." 

The  most  pathetic  object  on  which  we  can 
look  is  the  troubled  conscience  of  good  men 
in  a  false  position.  When  we  read  Sandys's 
Apologia,  and  see  Grindal  passing  out  of 
the  world  in  name  only  an  archbishop,  we  are 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION  17 

sure  to  ask  ourselves — How  could  such  men 
have  borne  it  ?  Compromising  with  themselves 
and  ill  at  ease,  failing  to  retain  the  confidence 
of  persons  wlio  had  trusted  them  and  whose 
approval  they  valued,  seeing  the  inevitable 
drift  of  things,  the  cause  for  which  they  were 
sacrificing  so  much  losing  ground  daily,  the 
popish  errors  they  called  hellish,  and  Anti- 
christ, daily  becoming  more  familiar  to  Pro- 
testants, and  securing  hold  on  the  life  of  the 
nation — why  did  they  not  assert  the  freedom 
of  Christian  men,  break  away  from  their  en- 
tanglements, and  labour  directly  for  the  full 
Reformation  which  was  so  dear  to  them  ?  It 
is  easy  to  call  them  cowards  and  time-servers  ; 
easy  to  speak  of  "  loaves  and  fishes,"  social 
recognition,  Court  fav^our,  love  of  power.  But 
we  make  a  great  mistake  if  we  thirds  it  is  only 
a  good  man's  worse  self  that  leads  him  astray  ; 
quite  as  often  he  errs  by  a  ftilse  reading  of 
the  good. 

Two  motives  seem  to  me  to  have  been 
dominant  in  them — conscience  and  patriotism. 
These  men  had  a  high  sense  of  the  sanctity  of 
their  orders.  They  had  been  called  into  the 
ministry  by  God,  and  they  were  under  respon- 

B 


1 8  THE  PROBLEM  OF 

sibility  to  God  to  exercise  tlieir  ministry,  if  it 
was  in  any  wise  possible  for  them  honestly  to 
do  so.  They  were  able  men  ;  many  of  them 
had  been  exiles  in  the  cause  of  Protestantism. 
In  Frankfort,  Strasburg,  Zurich,  they  came  into 
association  with  others  like  themselves,  strong, 
zealous,  masterful  persons,  whose  counsel  and 
sympathy  confirmed  their  belief  that  they  were 
called  to  be  instruments  of  Reformation  in 
England.  They  came  back  full  of  hope,  ready 
to  take  a  difficult  post  in  accomplishing  their 
mission.  The  sense  of  their  responsibility  be- 
came more  and  more  urgent  the  harder  they 
found  their  task ;  and  when  it  proved  an  im- 
possible enterprise,  it  was  too  late  to  draw 
back.  Their  patriotism,  too,  was  a  plea  they 
could  not  resist.  There  was  still  a  popish 
clergy  in  England ;  probably  a  majority  of  the 
priests  they  found  in  office  were  in  heart  Catho- 
lics of  the  Roman  type.  That  clergy  would 
have  furnished  and  trained  bishops  had  these 
retired.  And  a  perpetual  protest  on  their  part, 
constant  resistance  of  the  Queen,  whom  they 
were  fain  to  believe  God's  appointed  bulwark 
of  Protestantism,  ceaseless  strife  in  the  councils 
of  the  realm,  seemed  to   them   certain   to  end 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION  19 

in  social  disruption,  perhaps  in  civil  war.  The 
true  problem  of  the  Reformation  in  England 
was  —  how  to  secure  purity  in  doctrine  and 
worship  without  rending  the  nation  asunder  ; 
it  was  to  bring  back  the  simplicity  and  sanctity 
of  the  Apostolic  Church  in  a  land  which  had 
grown  complex  in  condition,  with  a  history  it 
could  not  break  from,  and  containinii  manv 
citizens  who  desired  no  Reformation. 

U 

The  most  eminent  of  Archldshop  Sandys's 
children  was  his  second  son,  Sir  Edwin,  iii<  n- 
tioned  in  Bradford's  "History  of  riymouLh 
Plantation  "  as  the  friend  of  the  Pilo-riTu 
Fathers,  the  treasurer  and  governor  of  the 
Virginia  Company.  When  a  young  man,  while 
his  brother  George  was  pursuing  his  classical 
studies  in  the  East,  he  was  travelling  in 
Western  Eurojie,  trying  to  understand  the 
Roman  controversy  and  the  relations  of  tlie 
Protestant  sects  to  one  another,  with  a  view- 
to  sec  how  they  might  be  brought  into  a 
"  unitie  universallc."  His  report,  intended  for 
presentation     to    an     ecclesiastical     dignitary, 


2  0  THE  PROBLEM  OF 

was  published  fifteen  years  after  without  his 
authority,  under  the  title  Eiiropm  Specuhmi. 
It  is  a  judicious  book — Sir  Edwin  had  been 
a  pupil  of  Richard  Hooker — a  book  full  of  keen 
observation,  philosophic  reflections,  and  grave 
humour,  breatliing  throughout  a  generous  spirit. 
Among  other  things,  he  tells  us  that  his  origi- 
nal view  of  the  Roman  Church,  gained  by 
speculation,  was  not  nearly  so  unfavourable  as 
his  later  judgment,  formed  by  actual  examina- 
tion. He  also  says  that,  "  of  all  places,  the 
desires  and  attempts  [of  the  Papists]  to  recover 
England,  have  been  always  and  still  are  the 
strongest;"  which,  "in  theyr  more  sober  moods, 
sundry  of  them  will  acknowledge  to  have  been 
the  only  nation  that  took  the  right  way  of 
justificall  Reformation,  in  comparison  of  other 
who  have  runne  headlong  rather  to  a  tumul- 
tuous innovation  (so  they  conceive  it).  Where- 
as that  alteration  which  hath  ])een  in  England, 
was  brought  in  with  peaceable  and  orderly 
proceeding,  by  generall  consent  of  the  Prince 
and  whole  Realme  representatively  assembled 
in  solemn  Parliament,  a  great  part  of  their 
owne  Cleririe  accordino;  and  conforminoj  them- 
selves  with    it ;    no   Luther,  no  Calvin,  in  the 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION  21 

square  of  tbeyr  Faith."  There  is  one  signifi- 
cant passage  in  his  description  of  the  hostility 
of  the  Romanists  to  all  religious  communities 
but  their  own.  '•  Theyr  hatred  is  to  the 
Lutheran,  the  author  of  theyr  calamitie ;  but 
hatred  and  feare  both  of  the  Calvinist  onely, 
whom  they  accompt  the  only  growing  enemie 
and  dausferous  to  their  state.  For  as  for  the 
Lutheran,  liee  was  long  since  at  his  highest ; 
and  if  he  itch  an  inch  forward  one  way  for  an 
ell  he  losetli  an  other." 

Sir  Edwin's  discovery  of  the  tenacious  vigour 
of  Calvinism  had  been  anticipated  half  a  cen- 
tury before  by  many  English  Reformers.  AVhen 
Dr.  Cox  went  over  to  Frankfort,  where,  in  the 
time  of  ]\Iary's  persecution,  a  church  of  our 
countrymen  was  gathered,  under  licence  of  the 
magistrates,  he  found  it  established  on  a  Cal- 
vinistic  basis ;  his  endeavours  to  I'c-establish 
it  on  that  moderate  platform,  which  gratified 
so  many  Papists,  was  the  reason  of  "  the  troubles 
in  Frankfort."  The  moderate  and  the  thorough- 
ffoino-  Reformers  both  foresaw  tliat,  when  the 
Protestant  Princess  Elizabeth  ascended  the 
throne,  and  the  exiles  returned,  the  influence 
of    the    Continental    churches     would     be     felt 


2  2  THE  PROBLEM  OF 

in  the  settlement  of  relioion  in  their  own 
country ;  hence  the  vehemence  of  the  con- 
troversy between  them.  The  congregation  had 
the  sympathy  of  Calvin  himself  and  the 
Zurich  Reformers ;  they  were  in  correspond- 
ence witli  tlie  Cambridge  Protestants  at  home. 
They  vainly  appealed  to  Sandys,  and  some 
others  who  afterward  were  made  bishops,  to 
help  them  in  thwarting  Cox's  schemes.  They 
would  have  smiled  had  the  future  archbishop 
spoken  to  them  of  the  distinction  between 
'■  a  small  private  church"  and  the  church  of  "a 
learned  Christian  kino-dom  ; "  it  was  not  onlv 
the  little  Frankfort  congregation  they  were 
zealous  for,  but  the  Church  of  England  as  it 
was  to  be. 

Here  we  must  distinguish  between  Calvinism 
as  a  theological  doctrine  and  Calvinism  as  an 
ecclesiastical  system.  When  we  talk  of  Calvin- 
ism to-day,  we  mean  the  doctrine  of  predestina- 
tion, with  its  corollaries  of  personal  election, 
effectual  calling,  and  the  perseverance  of  the 
saints.  There  was  no  controversy  among  the 
English  Reformers  about  this  ;  it  was  the  doc- 
trine common  to  Protestants.  Even  Whitgift 
was    a    Calvinist    in    this    sense ;    so    were    the 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION  23 

men  who  afterward  broke  away  from  the 
Puritans  :  Barrowc  was  a  Calvinist,  and  John 
Robinson  ;  Henry  x\insworth  liases  his  Congre- 
gationalism on  the  doctrine  of  personal  election. 
The  ecclesiastical  system  of  Calvinism  is  as 
really  a  State-church  doctrine  as  is  the  Anglican 
system,  but  with  this  profound  difference. 
The  English  Church  has  always  and  inevitably 
tended  to  Erastianism  ;  the  Church  is  regarded 
as  the  nation  in  its  religious  aspect  and  func- 
tions. I.ord  Rosebery  has  expressed  the  doc- 
trine bluntly  :  "  I  believe  a  State  has  as  much 
right  to  sustain  a  standing  Church  as  it  has  to 
sustain  a  standing  army."  Calvinism  recognises 
the  Church  as  a  distinct  body  constituted  by 
direct  divine  calling,  and  believes  that  God  in- 
tended it  to  regulate  the  faith  and  morals  of 
tlie  people.  In  England,  whenever  it  has  Ijeen 
feared  that  serious  social  complications  would  re- 
sult from  carrying  out  the  principles  of  the  New 
Testament,  political  necessity  has  determined  the 
issue  ;  the  Church  has  had  to  give  way  to  the 
Crown,  rjalvin,  on  the  other  hand,  governed 
Geneva.  The  Calvinistic  system  means  the 
interference  of  the  Church  with  the  life  of  the 
nation,    the    direction    of   its    faith    and    morals 


f 
24  THE  PROBLEM  OF 

by  ministers    and    elders  of  the  Church — con- 
sistories, classes,  presbyteries,  and  synods. 

The  Church  at  Frankfort,  while  glad  to  have 
the  sympathy  of  the  Continental  Calvinists, 
had  not  adopted — there  was  no  occasion  that 
it  should  adopt — the  full  Calvinistic  ecclesiasti- 
cal sytem  ;  indeed  there  are  some  things  in  its 
action,  as  we  shall  see  hereafter,  which  look 
rather  to  Congregationalism  than  to  Presby- 
terianism.  But  the  most  prominent  leader  of 
the  Puritan  party,  wdiich  Church  historians 
affiliate  to  the  Geneva  Church,  did  adopt 
it.  Thomas  Cartwright,  Fellow  of  St.  John's 
College,  Cambridge,  and  Lady  Margaret  Pro- 
fessor of  Divinity,  whose  "  pulpit  exercises 
were  so  much  followed  that,  when  he  preached 
at  St.  Mary's  [the  university]  Church,  the 
windows  of  the  church  were  taken  down  for 
the  accommodation  of  the  multitudes  who 
flocked  to  hear  him,"  goes  so  far  as  to  make 
clerical  authority  of  the  essence  of  the  Church. 
The  well-known  XlXth  Article  of  the  Church 
of  England,  "  on  the  Church,"  so  admirable 
for  its  catholicity,  was  issued  by  authority  of 
King  Edward  in  1553,  the  second  year  before 
liis  death.     It  reads:  "The  visible   Church   of 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION  25 

Christ    is    a   coiiirregation    of  faithful    inoii,    in 
which  the  pure   Word  of  God  is  preached,  and 
the  Sacraments  be  duly  administered,  according 
to  Christ's  ordinance,  in  all  those  things  that 
of  necessity  are  requisite  to  the    same."      The 
Frankfort   congregation   evidently  accepts   this 
article,   but  makes  a  significant  addition  to   it 
concerning    fellowship.       "  What    thing    ought 
we   to    have   in   greater    recommendation    than 
the  Order  and    Policy  which   God   hath   estab- 
lished in   His  Church  ?  that  we  may  be  taught 
by  his  Word,  that   we   may   worship  him   and 
call  on  his  name  with  one  accord,  that  we  may 
have  the  true  use   of  the   Sacraments  to  help 
us  to  the  same?"      And  again:    "  We  have  a 
Church   freely  granted   to   preach  God's  Word 
purely,    to  minister    the   Sacraments  sincerely, 
and  to  execute  Discipline  truly."     (yartwright, 
however,    makes     this     sweeping     affirmation  : 
"  Without    any    part    of   that    Order   or  Disci- 
pline which   the   Lord   hath   appointed,   I  grant 
there    can    be    no    Church   of  C*hrist ;    or,   that 
without  some  part  of  it,  there  can  be  no  faith 
in  Jesus  Christ.      It  is  a  |)art  of  the  Discipline 
of   oui'    Saviour    Christ    that    there    should    be 
certain     whi(;h    should    be    chosen    out    of    the 


2  6  THE  PROBLEM  OF 

rest  to  preach  the  gospel,  by  preaching  whereof 
the  Churches  are  gathered  together.  Where, 
therefore,  there  is  no  ministry  of  the  Word, 
there  it  is  plain  that  there  are  no  visible  and 
apparent  Churches.  It  is  another  piece  of  the 
Discipline  of  the  Lord  that  the  rest  of  the  body 
should  obey  them  that  are  set  over  them  in 
the  Lord  ;  wherever,  therefore,  there  is  no 
obedience  of  the  people  to  the  ministers  that 
in  the  Lord's  name  preach  unto  them,  there 
can  be  no  true  Church  of  Christ." 

The  Puritan  was  a  man  of  immense  moral 
courao-e.  No  reductio  ad  absurdum  made  him 
halt  in  his  logic ;  neither  scorn  nor  indifference 
could  abash  him  in  maintaining  his  points. 
AVhen  he  undertook  the  charge  of  the  nation 
nothing  was  too  small  for  him  to  look  after, 
nothing  too  great  for  him  to  attempt.  He 
could  cut  down  a  maypole  with  Endicott  at 
Merry  Mount  and  the  Martindales  at  Ros- 
therne ;  he  could  make  Mary  Queen  of  Scots 
tremble  in  her  closet ;  and  compare  Queen 
Elizabeth,  in  a  Court  sermon,  to  an  untamed 
heifer.  It  was  with  no  ligjht  heart  he  assumed 
the  regulation  of  public  faith  and  morals  ;  he 
was  aware  of  the  responsibility,  and  it  made  him 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION  27 

a  grave  num.  lie  had  indomitable  patience ; 
for  a  hundred  and  thirty-five  years,  from  "the 
troubles  at  P'rankfort,"  in  1554,  to  the  passing 
of  the  Toleration  Act  in  1689,  he  fought  his 
battle,  always  being  worsted,  but  never  accept- 
ing his  defeat.  Friends  fell  away  from  him, 
he  enjoyed  no  more  of  the  favour  of  the  Court 
than  if  he  had  been  a  confessed  dissenter ;  he 
made  the  prophets  of  tlie  Old  Testament  his 
companions,  and  yet  there  was  in  him  a  fountain 
of  sweetness  drawn  from  the  gospel.  He  was 
tender  to  the  poor,  gentle  in  the  sick-room,  a 
sympathetic  counsellor  to  weak  and  troubled  con- 
sciences. The  beautiful  hymn  bearing  Baxter's 
name — 

"  Lov'l,  it  helont^'S  not  to  nay  share 
Wli(jtlier  I  clie  1)1-  live  " — 

is  a  cento  from  a  [joeni  the  old  man  wrote 
to  comfort  a  girl  in  spiritual  depression,  and 
forms  part  of  one  of  the  purest  and  most 
romantic  love  -  stories  in  English  literature. 
"Endurance"  was  the  Puritan's  "downing 
quality."  He  stayed  himself  on  tlie  com- 
passion and  fidelity  of  Him  who  numbereth  the 
very  hairs  of  His  people's  heads,  telleth  their 
wanderings,    puts    their   tears   into    His   l»ottle, 


2  8  THE  PROBLEM  OF 

and  writes  them  in  His  book.  The  pragmatism, 
the  portentous  solemnity,  and  the  obstinacy, 
which  form  the  main  features  of  his  character 
in  popular  histories  and  novels,  arc  but  the 
caricatures  of  his  noble  qualities.  There  were 
hypocrites  among  the  Puritans,  but  the  Puritan 
was  no  hypocrite.  He  would  often  unwittingly 
caricature  himself,  but  he  held  fast  his  pro- 
fession until  death. 

Speaking  of  the  painful  position  of  Sandys 
and  Grindal,  I  have  asked — How  could  they 
bear  it  ?  with  still  more  emphasis  I  ask  myself 
— How  could  the  Puritans  bear  theirs  ?  From 
the  days  of  Elizabeth  to  the  days  of  Charles 
n.,  a  hundred  years,  with  the  exception  of 
the  short  period  of  the  Commonwealth,  they 
were  Nonconformists  within  the  Established 
Church,  and  they  must  have  found  it  an 
irksome  state.  It  wounded  their  self-respect ; 
they  were  fretted  and  hindered  in  their  preach- 
ing and  their  parish  work,  dependent  on  the 
casual  toleration  of  a  few  friendly  bishops  and 
lay  patrons,  who  stood  between  them  and  the 
Crown.  The  Separatists  set  them  the  example 
of  forming  churches,  in  which,  when  they  were 


THE  ENGLISH   REFORMATION  29 

able  to  meet,  tlieir  worship  was  according  to 
the  order  they  themselves  had  laid  down,  and 
all  their  liearers  were  sympathetic.  But  the 
Puritans  stayed  where  tliey  were  ;  they  wouhl 
not  leave  the  Church  of  England.  They  were 
persecuted,  admonished,  checked,  but  they  re- 
mained. James  talked  of  harrying  them  out 
of  the  Church,  or  worse,  if  they  would  not 
conform ;  but  James's  vanity  was  no  match 
for  the  pride  in  patience  of  the  Puritans  :  tliey 
neither  conformed  nor  separated.  They  di<l 
not  go  until  they  were  put  out  by  a  new^  law 
— Charles  II. 's  Act  of  Uniformity  in  1662. 

The  animating  principles  of  their  fortitude 
were  those  which  justified  tlic  bishop's  ])arty 
in  their  conformity — their  conscience  and  their 
patriotism.  All  through  their  controversies 
their  reverence  for  tlieir  ministerial  office 
appears.  They  w'ere  called  of  Cod  to  their 
various  charges ;  their  ordination  liad  been  to 
service  in  the  Established  Church.  Tlicy  had 
a  high  sense  of  their  duty  to  their  nation  ; 
God  had  blessed  England  with  the  dawn  of 
a  Reformation,  and  though  the  dawn  liad  been 
obscured  and  clouded,  it  was  for  them  to  wait 
on  Ilim  until  the  clouds  should  lift.     Scottish 


30  THE  PROBLEM  OF 

Presbyterianism  shows  us  this  Puritan  senti- 
ment of  the  sanctity  of  national  religion  at 
its  hin^hest.  Not  until  our  own  times  has  the 
Free  Church  of  Scotland,  the  representative 
of  the  old  evangelical  theology  of  the  first 
Reformers,  recognised  that  a  nation  may  be 
Christian  without  an  Established  Church. 
There  are  Scotsmen  even  now  who  believe 
that  Scotland  is  a  covenanted  nation,  and  the 
Reformed  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United 
States  inherits  the  tradition.  "  Why  should 
there  be  such  a  Church  here  ? "  I  said  a  few 
years  ago  to  a  minister  who  had  sprung  from 
that  stock.  "  America  is  surely  not  included 
in  the  Scottish  covenant,"  His  answer  w^as 
striking  :  "  The  Reformed  Presbyterian  Church," 
he  said,  "stands  for  the  moral  personality  of 
the  nation."  English  Presbyterianism  never 
soared  to  the  height  of  that  great  argument ; 
but  it  was  charged  with  the  sense  of  national 
Christian  obligation,  national  Protestant  obli- 
gation, and  it  knew  no  way  of  fulfilling  it 
but  to  labour  for  a  wholly  Reformed  and  purely 
Protestant  National  Church.  The  Puritans 
were  ready  to  wait  as  well  as  to  labour.  They 
would  tarry  for  prince,  would  tarry  for  people. 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION  31 

but  they  could  not  abate  their  ideal  ;  tlicy 
could  neitlier  conform  to  the  cstabli.-hed  order 
nor  voluntarily  (juit  tlieir  Church. 

Ill 

The  conscientiousness  of  the  Separatists — the 
men  who,  tired  at  length  of  tarrying  for  a 
Reformation  which  the  Puritans  were  always 
promising,  but  which  never  came,  broke  away 
altogether  from  the  Established  Church — needs 
no  defence  before  those  whom  I  am  addressing  • 
indeed,  it  has  never  been  challenged  seriously 
by  any.  The  scores  who  died  in  London 
prisons,  and  the  three  men — Henry  Barrowc, 
John  Greenwood,  and  John  Tenry — who  were 
so  wantonly  hanged  at  Tyburn,  were  martyrs 
for  conscience'  sake.  The  ceaseless  endurance  of 
suffering  and  ignominy  by  the  London  church, 
and  their  banishment  to  Holland,  the  vexa- 
tion and  harassment  of  the  churches  in  Gains- 
borough and  Scroby,  and  their  exile  in  the 
same  place  of  refuge,  witnessed  to  the  sustain- 
ing power  of  conscience.  It  was  the  "  rude 
grasp "  of  conscience  which  drove  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers    across    the    sea  ;     the    broken  -  hearted 


32  THE  PROBLEM  OF 

remnants  of  the  fellowship  in  Amsterdam,  who 
dribbled  back  to  London,  there  haply  to  accom- 
plish the  work  of  settling  a  pure  and  peaceful 
Church,  which  they  had  fciiled  to  do  in  their 
exile,  were  under  the  same  constraint.  The 
Church  in  the  Catacombs  did  not  contain  truer- 
souled  men  than  Ainsworth  and  Jacob,  and 
others  whose  names  are  lost ;  perhaps,  if  the 
inner  history  of  the  early  Roman  Christians 
were  as  fully  known  as  we  know  that  of 
Amsterdam,  we  should  find  there  too  some 
miserable  details,  sullying  the  record,  but  not 
availing  to  destroy  the  impression  of  fidelity. 

What  has  not  been  so  fully  recognised  in 
the  history  of  the  Separatists  is  that  their 
patriotism,  though  different  in  aim,  was  not  a 
whit  inferior  in  quality  to  that  of  the  Puritans 
and  the  Anglicans.  Their  first  concern  is  with 
the  Churches ;  that  they  be  constituted  and 
governed  according  to  the  will  of  Christ ;  that 
the  members  be  disciplined  in  faith  and  know- 
ledge and  godly  character ;  but  it  is  clear  that 
they  believed  that  in  seeking  this  they  were 
labouring  for  the  welfare  of  the  nation.  One  of 
the  most  touching  features  in  the  prison  con- 
ferences between  the  suffering  Separatists   and 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION  33 

the  Royal  Commissioners  sent  to  interrogate 
them  is  the  constant  appeal  of  the  prisoners 
for  public  debate,  regularly  conducted,  care- 
fully taken  down  and  reported  without  partial 
editing.  They  long  to  get  at  the  ear  of  Eng- 
land ;  they  are  confident  that  both  their  per- 
sonal integrity  and  the  soundness  of  their  cause 
will  appeal  to  their  fellow-countrymen  if  only 
they  be  fairly  listened  to. 

The  same  confidence  appears  in  some  "  mo- 
tions touching  Unitie,  sent  by  a  few  who  are 
falselie  and  maliciouslie  called  Brownistes."  A 
portion  of  it  was  written  by  Harrowe ;  within 
a  month  of  his  execution  the  trouljled  Church 
enlarges  his  appeal  and  prepares  it  for  private 
circulation  to  the  Lord  Alayor  and  Counsellors 
of  London,  to  the  Judges  and  Counsellors  of 
tlie  realm.  In  a  document  preserved  in  the 
iiritish  Museum/  one  of  the  sheets  is  endorsed 
"  Penry  ye  othur  "  (author),  and  the  style — fer- 
vid, vacillating,  and  absolutely  sincere  —  is 
like  his.  A  third  person — a  redactor — appar- 
ently an  uneducated  man,  has  gone  over  the 
sheets,  correcting  and  adding  to  the  work  of 
the    martyrs.       It    is    an    impassioned     appe;il, 

>  Ilarleiau  MSS.,  6848,  Article  i. 


34  THE  PROBLEM    OF 

shewing  liow  cruelly  the  blow  which  had  fallen 
on  the  Church  was  afflicting  them,  and  con- 
tainino;  some  touchino;  details  of  their  sufFerings. 
Equally  impassioned  is  the  confidence  it  dis- 
plays in  English  fairplay ;  the  petitioners  do 
not  believe  that  anything  but  misconception 
can  account  for  the  injustice  they  are  enduring. 
"  For  God's  sake,  for  Queen  Elizabeth's  sake, 
for  England's  sake,  and  for  your  own  sake," 
they  appeal,  "peruse  it  with  favour.  It  ten- 
deth  to  Mercy  and  Unity."  There  is  no  word 
of  retractation  in  the  appeal,  but  an  intense 
desire  to  be  reconciled  to  their  fellow-country- 
men, and  an  unfaltering  confidence  that  they 
would  be  left  in  peace  to  follow  conscience  if 
they  were  but  understood. 

Nor  was  this  patriotism  an  evanescent  feel- 
ing. It  characterises  the  whole  history  of  the 
Independents ;  it  saved  them  from  cherishing 
scorn  of  England,  and  mitigated  the  bitterness 
of  their  lot.  Only  patriots  could  have  founded 
the  Plymouth  Colony,  and  given  form  to  the 
United  States.  It  was  patriotism  to  which 
Cromwell  appealed  wdien  he  made  of  the 
humble  men  of  these  Churches  an  army,  able 
to    "encounter    o;entlemen,    that    have    honour 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION  35 

and  couraoe  and  resolution  in  them."  "  1 
raised,"  he  said,  "  sucli  men  as  had  the  fear  of 
God  before  them,  as  made  some  conscience  of 
what  they  did  ;  and  from  tliat  day  forward, 
I  must  say  to  you,  they  were  never  beaten,  and 
wherever  they  were  engaged  against  tlie  enemy, 
they  beat  continually." 

The  Separatists  were  Englishmei],  with  the 
English  prejudice  against  foreigners,  the  Eng- 
lish intensity  of  purpose. 

Robinson's  company  could  not  Itecome  Dutch- 
men ;  could  they  have  done  so,  they  would  have 
made  happy  homes  in  Leyden,  or  established 
a  colony  under  the  protection  of  Holland, 
and  their  condition  would  have  been  far  easier 
than  it  was  under  the  lee  of  Cape  Cod,  with 
James  Stuart  ;is  their  king.  It  was  to  found 
a  new  England  that  the  Mayflower  left  the 
old  shores.  To  help  in  making  a  new  England 
was  equally  the  task  of  those  who  stayed  in 
the  mother-land.  The  England  of  to-day  is  as 
different  from  Tudor  England,  and  the  England 
of  the  early  Stuarts,  as  is  America  from  Gre;it 
Britain  ;  nay,  the  difference  is  far  greater,  and 
the  work   of   my    foreiathers,    since   the   seven- 


36  THE  PROBLEM  OF 

teeiith  century,  was  quite  as  arduous  as  that  of 
yours.  Tjmited  monarchy  and  constitutional 
government  instead  of  absolute  rule ;  freedom 
of  public  worship,  under  whatever  form  the 
Churches  may  determine ;  a  religious  tolera- 
tion always  tending  to  entire  religious  equality 
in  the  eye  of  the  law ;  the  abatement  of  con- 
troversy, the  friendly  recognition  of  denomina- 
tional and  doctrinal  differences ;  the  federation 
of  Churches,  with  various  disciplines,  into  a 
Catholic  fellowship,  where  all  are  free  and  all 
are  brotherly — this  new  state  of  England,  which 
lies  before  us  to  be  completed  in  the  twentieth 
century,  is  no  chance  issue.  It  has  come  about 
by  the  determination  of  each  of  the  three  great 
sections  of  English  Protestants  —  Anglicans, 
Puritans,  and  Separatists — to  be  faithful  to  its 
own  ideal,  to  establish  itself  in  the  common 
land. 

IV 

The  truth  underlying  Archbishop  Sandys's 
sentence,  about  the  "  small  private  church " 
and  the  "  learned  Christian  kingdom,"  is  this  : 
a  Church  in  a  nation  like  England  must  share 
in  the   national   life  ;  it   cannot  pursue  an  ab- 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION  37 

stract  ideal,  it  is  conditioned  in  all  its  move- 
ment hy  the  traditions,  the  habits,  and  the 
needs  of  the  commonwealth.  It  would  be  a 
great  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  Separatists 
were  ignorant  of  this.  Barrowe  was  a  man 
trained  in  the  principles  of  English  law ;  he 
sought  no  liberty  for  Churches,  which  was,  in 
his  view,  inconsistent  with  the  constitution. 
Henry  Jacob  had  the  temperament  and  the 
sober  speculative  habit  of  the  jurist.  John 
Robinson  had  something  of  the  statesman's 
outlook  ;  his  advice  as  to  the  civil  government 
of  the  new  colony,  which  was  followed  by  the 
Mayflower  Compact,  was  also  in  the  spirit  of 
English  history.  The  fact  which  Sandys  over- 
looked was  that  England  was  undergoing  a 
political  change,  the  influence  of  which  was 
reflected  in  the  discussions  on  ecclesiastical 
polity.  It  was  the  eve  of  democratic  constitu- 
tionalism. The  feudal  system  was  dead,  the 
population  was  gathering  into  towns  ;  municipal 
life — and  Congregationalism  is  municipal  free- 
dom in  Church  government — had  begun.  The 
power  of  the  barons,  once  the  protection  and 
then  the  burden  of  the  people,  which  had  been 
weakened  by  the  Wars  of  the  Roses,  was  finally 


•>f 


0BG8.1 


38  THE  PROBLEM  OF 

broken  by  the  Tudor  monarchs.  The  contest 
between  absolute  monarchy  and  the  self-govern- 
ment of  the  people  was  at  hand.  Elizabeth 
was  the  last  of  the  Tudor  monarchs ;  the  futility 
of  the  Scottish  Stuarts  made  the  triumph  of 
democracy  certain,  but  a  long  struggle  be- 
tween the  Crown  and  the  people  was  inevit- 
able. The  Separatists  were  the  men  who 
were  looking  and  labouring  for  the  morrow ; 
Sandys  and  his  party  were  facing  the  setting 
sun  ;  Cartwright  and  those  with  him  thought 
for  the  morrow,  but  they  worked  in  the  spirit 
of  the  past.  An  eminent  Swiss  jurisprudent, 
M.  Borgeaud,  does  not  hesitate  to  affirm  that 
the  Separatists  were  the  earliest  Christian 
democrats  ;  he  traces  the  history  of  modern 
democracy  to  the  compact  signed  in  the  cabin 
of  the  Mayfiower.  Barrowe  may  have  sus- 
pected something  of  this  sort ;  Henry  Jacob 
knew  it.  The  wide-reaching  issues  of  their 
testimony  were  not,  of  course,  before  them ; 
but  they  were  watchers  by  the  cradle  of  the 
new  England,  and  they  loved  the  child.  They 
"  builded  better  than  they  knew,"  but  they 
understood  architecture.  Truth  is  one ;  no 
man  can  be  faithful  to  his  vision,  however  small 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION  39 

may  he  his  field  of  sight,  without  helping  for- 
ward every  great  movement  associated  with 
his  own.  It  is  much  for  us  to  be  able  to  say 
of  our  spiritual  forefathers  that  they  were  men 
who — in  times  of  great  confusion,  when  prin- 
ciples were  seething  and  none  could  wholly 
forecast  what  form  crystallisation  would  assume 
— by  a  divine  instinct  associated  themselves 
with  a  doctrine  which  has  proved  so  fruitful 
and  so  far- reaching. 


L  EOT  HUE    IT 


C O N G R E (t a T I () N iV L 1 8 M    B  E lO  1  { J 
IK) BERT    BROWNE 


Fletcher's  "  History  of  Independency  " — Congregational 
and  Aggregate  Independency — Mr.  Fletcher's  Anti-State- 
Churchisni — Not  all  Independents  theoretical  Congre- 
gationalists — Congregationalism  the  Primitive  Type  of 
Cliurches — Lollard  Congregations — English  Exiles  form 
Independent  Congregations  on  the  Continent  —  "  The 
Troubles  in  Frankfort" — Rapid  Development  of  Congre- 
gational Practice — Congregational  Self-government — The 
Church  prior  to  the  Ministry — Discipline — Return  of 
Exiles  to  England — What  the  Marian  Persecution  had 
done  for  Congregationalism — The  Christian  Congregation 
— The  Use  of  the  term  Church  in  the  Puritan  Controversy 
— Persecuted  Congregation  in  London — Accession  of  Eliza- 
beth— Discontinuance  and  Revival  of  Separate  Congrega- 
tions— The  Church  in  the  Prisons — Elizabeth's  Discourage- 
ment of  Protestantism — "  Reformation  without  Tarrying 
for  Anie  " — Robert  Browne — Breach  between  Puritans  and 
Separatists — Characteristic  Differences  between  them — 
Purity  of  Fellowship — The  Power  of  the  People — Persecu- 
tion had  proved  the  People  trustworthy — The  Church- 
Meeting — Creed  and  Covenant — Congregationalism  in  the 
New  Testament. 


LECTIJIIK    II 

CONGREGATIONALISM  BEFORE 
ROBERT  BROWNE 

The  Kev.  Joseph  Fletcher,  whose  "  History  of 
Independency  "  ^  has  not  received  the  attention 
it  deserves,  draws  a  distinction  between  "  Con- 
gregational Independency "  and  what  he  styles 
"  Aggregate  Independency."  By  Congregational 
Independency  lie  means  simply  the  practice  in 
cono;reirations  of  manaojino;  their  own  internal 
affairs,  either  by  their  members  directly  or  l)y 
those  whom  they  have  called  to  office.  l>y 
Aggregate  Independency  he  means  the  recog- 
nised freedom  of  the  Church  in  tlie  aggregate 
from  outside  control.  He  has  in  view  not  only 
a  practice,  but  a  practice  founded  on  a  doctrine 
— and  the  doctrine  is  that  religion,  especially 
the  Christian  religion,  is  a  matter  of  conscience  ; 

'  "Tlie  History  of  llie  Revival  and  Progress  of  Independency 
in  England."  Hy  Joseph  Fletcher.  4  vols.  London  :  John 
Snow  &  Co.,  1S4S. 


44         CONGREGATIONALISM  BEFORE 

and  that  as  conscience  can  neither  be  compelled 
by  power  nor  converted  by  favour,  the  purely 
relisjious  action  of  Churches  must  not  be  sub- 
ject  to  external  authority,  either  civil  or  ecclesi- 
astical. He  points  out,  moreover,  that  many  of 
the  "  rigid  Puritans  " — that  is,  the  nonconform- 
ing members  of  the  Established  Church — were 
Congregational,  or  accidental,  Independents. 

Mr.  Fletcher  was  one  of  the  young  Congre- 
gationalists  who,  about  the  year  i<'^40,  were 
under  the  influence  of  Edward  Miall  in  the 
Nonconformist  newspaper.  To  them  the  sepa- 
ration of  Church  and  State  was  a  constant 
subject  of  thought ;  they  saw  the  evils  of 
establishment  or  the  blessings  of  disestablish- 
ment everywhere.  In  his  treatment  of  Robert 
Browne  and  Separatism,  he  fixes  attention  on 
the  denial  of  the  claim  of  the  civil  govern- 
ment to  regulate  the  profession  of  religion. 
"  With  all  deference  to  the  judgment  of 
others,"  ^  he  says,  "  we  are  compelled  to  re- 
gard Robert  Browne  as  the  first  in  this  country 
to  advocate  liberty  of  conscience  on  the  broad 
ground  of  the  distinction  between  matters  civil 
and  religious.     There  can  be  little  doubt,  also, 

>  Fletcher,  vol.  iii.  pp.  43,  44. 


ROBERT  BROWNE  45 

that  the  early  Brownists  hekl  the  same  views 
as  their  leader,  since  they  are  so  referred  to  in 
the  contemporaneous  writings  of  the  day.  The 
Barrowists  were  in  this  and  some  other  re- 
spects another  class  of  men,  as  the  Separatists 
in  Holland  were  a  third,  and  the  rigid  Puritans 
in  Enoland  a  fourth.  All  of  them,  tosjether 
with  the  Baptists,  were  Congregational  Inde- 
pendents ;  but  they  did  not  all  hold  the  same 
views  in  respect  to  the  scriptural  power  of  the 
magistrates  in  matters  of  religion."  Again  he 
says,^  "  It  is  plain  that  the  assertion  wliich  has 
been  made  in  our  day,  respecting  the  incom- 
patibility of  Congregational  Independency  with 
the  civil  establishment  of  religion,  is  not  abso- 
lutely true  ;  since  the  Congregational  Independ- 
ents of  this  period — 1603  to  16 16 — or  some 
of  tliem,  souglit  that  civil  oversight  and  inter- 
ference, which,  in  later  periods  and  in  other 
countries,  have  actually  been  connected  witli 
the  system." 

This  distinction,  which  Dr.  Dexter  quotes 
with  approval,  is  important.  It  enables  us  to 
understand  how  it  was  that,  while  tlie  Separa- 
tists were  so  few  and  so  weak  in  the  reign  of 

Fletcher,  vol.  iii.  pp.  47,  48. 


46         CONGREGATIONALISM  BEFORE 

King  James,  Cromwell  could  call  around  him, 
in  the  next  reign,  so  many  Independents  that 
he  clianged  the  destiny  of  England.  It  throws 
light  on  tlic  early  ecclesiastical  history  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  Connecticut,  the  "  blue  laws,"  and 
the  interference  with  individual  religious  liberty, 
which  drove  Rosier  Williams  to  Rhode  Island 
as  an  escape  from  Congregational  rule.  It  helps 
us  to  grasp  the  fact,  the  assertion  of  which  is 
so  bewildering  to  many,  that  the  Pilgrim  Fathers 
in  America  and  the  Brownists  in  England  were 
not  persecutors ;  and  it  frees  the  persecuting 
Con2:reo;ationalists  themselves  from  the  charge 
of  inconsistency  in  preaching  toleration  when 
they  were  the  weaker  party  and  refusing  tolera- 
tion when  they  were  in  power.  The  early 
Independents  included  a  few  who  were  so  be- 
cause they  had  worked  out  a  harmonious  doc- 
trine of  the  obligations  and  rights  of  the 
particular  Church,  and  a  great  many  who 
simply  practised  democracy  in  their  own  con- 
gregations. The  former  did  not  persecute  ;  the 
latter  did.  The  distinction  has  also  a  backward 
look ;  we  shall  not  understand  the  development 
of  English  Congreo-ationalism  out  of  the  Refor- 
mation  struggle  unless  we  bear  it  in  mind. 


ilOTiKlJT  BROWNE  47 


I 


Congregationalism  is  tlie  primitive  form  of 
Church  government,  not  only  in  the  sense  of 
its  being  an  apostolic  form,  but  also  because  it 
is  the  form  to  which  Churcli  life  naturally  and 
inevitably  reverts  when  Christian  men  and 
women,  finding  either  civil  or  ecclesiastical 
rule  intolerable  to  conscience,  come  together 
in  societies  for  mutual  edification.  The  germ 
of  our  Congrreo-ationalism  was  in  the  teachinsf 
and  conduct  of  Wyelif  The  "poor  priests" 
whom  he  sent  out  to  preach  had  not  only 
evangelistic  fervour,  tliey  had  learned  fi-om 
him  very  broad  principles  of  religious  and 
civil  freedom.  The  disciples  whom  they  won 
had  a  strong  impulse  of  fellowship  ;  they  were 
also  instructed  in  the  right  and  duty  of  gather- 
ing together. 

It  has  been  abundantly  proved  that  Lollardry 
was  not  sporadic  ;  that  it  was  local  and  abiding. 
The  Pvcv.  W.  H.  Beckett^  has  given  us  maps 
in  which  there  are  graphically  presented  cer- 
tain districts  which,  for  successive  generations, 

'  " 'J'liu  Englisli  R('funnat  ion  of  tlie  Sixteeutli  Cciilui'y."  By 
\V.  II.  P.eckctt.     London  :  K.T.S.,  1890. 


48         CONGREGATIONALISM  BEFORE 

kept  up  the  tradition  of  Lollardry ;  for  the 
most  part  these  were  the  districts  in  which 
Puritanism  flourished,  and  where  dissent  is 
strong  to-day.  Still  more  lately,  Mr.  G.  M. 
Trevelyan  has  dealt  with  the  fable  that  Lol- 
lardry ceased  to  be  influential  after  the  great 
Reformer's  death.  ^  Not  only  did  AVyclif  leave 
behind  him  a  few  sympathisers  among  the 
nobles,  he  had  also  founded  societies  among 
the  people.  The  first  preachers  were  followed 
by  simple,  poor  men  ;  "  no  great  Lollard  divine 
succeeded  Wyclifie."  In  the  Home  Counties, 
in  East  Anglia,  and  in  Somerset,  from  1400 
to  1520,  there  was  persecution  of  the  Lollards. 
"  In  the  neighbourhood  of  Beccles,  on  the 
borders  of  Norfolk  and  Sufi"olk,  great  congre- 
gations were  formed,  Lollard  schools  started, 
and  arrangements  made  with  a  certain  parch- 
ment maker  for  smuo;i2;linoj  in  the  latest  heretical 
tracts  from  the  capital.  This  was  about  the 
time  of  the  accession  of  Henry  the  Sixth."  All 
was  done  without  the  protection  or  patronage 
of    any    powerful    landowner,    simply   by    the 


1  "  England  in  the  Age  of  Wycliffe."     By  George  IMacaulay 
Trevelyan.     London  :  Longmans,  Green,  &  Co.,  1899. 

2  1422. 


ROBERT  RROWNE  49 

initiative  of  the  middle  classes  of  the  district, 
searchinsf  for  a  relimon  suitable  to  themselves." 
Nearly  a  century  after,  in  the  reign  of  Henry 
the  Seventh,  one  of  the  signs  of  the  times  was 
"  an  ever-increasing  number  of  men  burnt  for 
Lollardry." 

Facts  like  these  cannot  but  su2;oest  to  the 
imagination  companies  of  men  and  women,  not 
straggling  audiences,  but  permanent  congrega- 
tions ;  and  the  congregations  must  have  had 
some  sort  of  discipline,  using  the  word  in  its 
beautiful  Congregational  sense,  of  the  care 
which  the  members  of  Christ's  body  have  one 
for  another,  A  common  accusation  brought 
against  them  was  that  of  Separatism,  although 
the  word  had  not  yet  come  into  vogue.  They 
"  despised  the  sacrament  of  the  altar,"  refused 
to  come  to  confession,  kept  away  from  the 
parish  churches.  They  are  spoken  of  as  "  con- 
creijations "  and  "a  sect." 

11 

In  the  reign  of  Henry  VI 11.,  when  religious 
Reformation  was  hoped  for,  and  in  the  reign 
of    Edward    VI.,    when    it   was    advanced,    the 

D 


50         CONGREGATIONALISM  BEFORE 

tendency  to  this  inchoate  Congregationalism 
was  checked ;  but  it  received  a  powerful  im- 
pulse from  the  persecutions  under  Mary  Tudor. 
Bands  of  Protestants  exiled  themselves ;  they 
formed  congregations  "in  sundry  places  of  Ger- 
many and  Helvetia."  There  were  some  also 
in  Holland.  They  recognised  each  other  as 
independent  societies ;  they  spoke  of  their 
assemblies  as  churches ;  they  were  so  described 
by  Archbishop  Grindal.  The  congregations 
were  self- governed ;  they  had  consultations 
with  each  other  by  letters  and  messengers,  pro- 
fiting by  one  another's  experience ;  but  they 
recognised  no  authority,  even  in  great  leaders 
like  Calvin  and  Beza,  to  determine  their 
decisions. 

The  inevitable  drift  of  such  companies  into 
Congregational  Independency  is  illustrated  by 
"  The  History  of  that  Stir  and  Strife,  which  was 
in  the  English  Church  at  Frankfort,  from  the 
13th  Day  of  January,  Ann.  Dom.  1557,  forward." 

After  John  Knox  had  been  sent  away  from 
that  Church  and  Mr.  Home  chosen  their  pastor, 
a  difference  arose  between  him  and  Mr.  Ashley, 
one  of  the  members.  The  elders  took  up  the 
case,    affirming    that    Mr.    Ashley   had,    in    the 


ROBERT   BROWNE  51 

controversy,  spoken  words  injurious  to  them 
all.  He  denied  it,  and  was  summoned  to 
appear  before  them  and  answer  for  his  fault. 
The  Church  was  assembled  to  hear  the  trial, 
when  lie,  not  unnaturally  for  an  Englishman, 
demanded  an  impartial  tribunal.  He  said  that 
*'  he  would  not  answer  before  them  as  com- 
petent judges  of  the  cause,"  seeing  "they 
shewed  themselves  an  adversary  part  to  him  ;  " 
but  he  would  refer  the  cause  for  trial  to  the 
whole  Church.  The  pastor  threatened  him  with 
an  appeal  to  the  magistrates.  Ashley  "  then 
handled  his  own  cause  in  his  own  name  before 
the  pastor  and  elders,"  and  offered  to  submit 
the  whole  matter  to  eight  or  ten  competent 
and  impartial  men.  When  the  pastor  and 
elders  refused  this  suggestion,  under  the  plea 
that  they  had  received  their  authority  from 
the  Church,  and  meant  to  exercise  it,  Ashley 
appealed  to  the  congregation,  and  the  members 
took  the  matter  up. 

To  shew  his  displeasure,  the  offended  pastor 
declined  to  exercise  his  ministry  among  them. 
The  members  would  not  excuse  his  absence  ;  tlicy 
summoned  liim  to  preach  and  to  come  to  their 
meetings.      Jle    would    not,    and    they   deposed 


52         CONGREGATIONALISM  BEFORE 

him ;  tlie  elders,  who  sided  with  the  pastor, 
were  deposed  with  him.  The  Church,  being 
now  without  officers,  met  and  took  steps  to 
elect  others  ;  whereupon  Mr.  Home  claimed  to 
be  still  pastor.  But  it  was  too  late,  neither 
he  nor  the  elders  were  able  to  recover  their 
position. 

The  members  went  further.  Having  found 
that  their  order  and  discipline  did  not  provide 
for  a  case  like  this,  where  the  pastor  and 
elders  constituted  one  side  in  a  controversy 
and  a  member  of  the  Church  another,  they 
undertook  the  work  of  amending  their  con- 
stitution, and  produced  a  new  order  and  dis- 
cipline— an  elaborate  document  of  seventy-three 
items,  in  which  the  freedom  of  the  Church  is 
safeguarded  against  an  unreasonable  set  of 
rulers.  The  pastor  and  elders  had,  at  the  first, 
appealed  to  the  magistrates,  wdio  interfered, 
although  unwillingly,  in  the  interest  of  the 
peace  of  the  city.  Practically  the  magistrates 
sided  with  the  Church ;  they  directed  the  com- 
munity to  amend  its  constitution.  The  head- 
ing of  the  new  constitution  looks  like  a  note 
of  triumph  on  the  part  of  the  people  :  "  Now 
followeth    the    Discipline     reform'd    and     con- 


ROBERT  BROWNE  53 

firm'd    by    tlic    authority    of    the    Church    iiiid 
Magistrates." 

Wlicn  we  remember  that  these  events 
happened  in  1557-58,  twenty-five  years  before 
the  publication  of  Robert  lirowne's  "  booke 
which  shewetli  the  life  and  manners  of  all 
true  Christians,  and  how  unlike  they  arc  unto 
Turkes  and  Papistes  and  Heathen  folke,"  we 
are  struck  with  the  somewhat  advanced  Con- 
gregationalism in  Frankfort.  The  document 
not  only  afiirms  the  right  of  the  Church  to 
elect  its  officers  —  Cartwright,  as  a  Puritan, 
afiirms  the  same — it  declares  that  the  authority 
of  the  Church  is  prior  to  that  of  the  ministers, 
and  that  the  ministers  are  subject  to  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  Church.  In  case  some  of  the 
ministers  and  ciders  are  excepted  against  by 
a  member  or  members  of  the  Church,  those 
excepted  against  are  to  have  no  part  in  trying 
the  case ;  they  must  stand  aside,  and  the 
CI  lurch  is  to  nominate  substitutes  for  them  on 
the  judicial  body.  "If  all  the  ministers  and 
Seniors  be  suspected  or  found  I'arties,  or  if 
any  appeal  be  made  from  them ;  that  then 
such  appeal  be  made  to  the  body  of  the  con- 
gregation,   tlie    ministers,    Seniors,    and   Parties 


54         CONGREGATIONALISM  BEFORE 

excepted.  And  that  the  Body  of  the  Congre- 
gation may  appoint  so  many  of  the  Congrega- 
tion to  hear  and  determine  the  said  matter  or 
matters,  as  it  shall  seem  good  to  the  Congre- 
gation." "  The  Congregation  is  to  be  called 
or  assembled,  for  causes  and  at  times  as  shall 
seem  expedient  to  the  ministers  and  elders ; 
but  if  they  refuse  to  act,  when  desired,  then 
the  Congregation  may  itself  come  together, 
and  that  which  they,  or  the  major  part  of 
them  shall  judge  or  decree,  shall  be  a  lawful 
decree  and  ordinance,  of  sufficient  force  to  bind 
the  whole  Congregation,  and  every  member  of 
the  same."  They  anticipate  John  Eobinson's 
advice  to  the  Plymouth  people,  to  have  more 
ministers  than  one ;  and  they  declare  that 
neither  of  them  shall  be  superior  in  standing 
or  authority  to  the  other.  Their  definition  of 
a  visible  Church  includes  :  "  (i)  Pure  and  godly 
doctrine ;  (2)  tlie  right  ministration  and  use 
of  the  Sacraments  and  Common  Prayer ;  (3) 
honest  and  godly  life,  if  not  in  the  whole 
multitude,  yet  in  many  of  them  ;  (4)  discipline, 
that  is,  the  correction  of  vices."  It  is  further 
enacted,  that  "  if  any  controversy  be  upon  the 
doubtful    meaning    of   any  Word  or  AVords  in 


ROBERT  BROWNE  55 

the  discipline,  tlkat  first  it  ])C.  refcr'd  to  the 
Ministers  and  Seniors.  And  if  they  cannot 
agree  thereupon,  then  the  thing  to  be  brought 
and  refer'd  to  the  whole  conG!;re2;ation,"  The 
final  item  provides  that  "  the  Discipline  and 
Orders  of  the  Church  shall  be  read  openly 
once  every  Quarter,  and  warning  thereof  before 
shall  be  given  to  the  whole  Congregation,  both 
that  every  member  thereof  may  know  his  Duty, 
and  that  every  man  may  with  liberty  quietly 
speak  his  mind,  for  the  changing  and  amend- 
ing of  it,  or  any  part  thereof,  according  to 
God's  word  ;  and  the  same  exhibited  in  writ- 
ino:,  with  the  xVr2;uments  and  Reasons  of  that 
his  Request." 

A  very  significant  clause  is  one  concern- 
ing discipline.  "  Altho'  this  word  Discipline 
generally  doth  contain  all  ecclesiastical  Orders 
and  Ordinances,  yet  in  this  place  it  is  properly 
taken  for  the  rule  of  outward  honest  Orders 
and  Manners,  and  of  the  Runishment  and 
Correction  of  Vices."  This  is  a  Congregational 
note.  Discipline,  among  the  Anglicans,  meant, 
as  Robert  I>rownc  complained,  the  power  of  the 
Queen's  courts  to  enforce  uniformity.  Dis- 
cipline,  as    Cartwright   and    Travers    define    it, 


56         CONGREGATIONALISM  BEFORE 

is  mainly  the  consistorial  government  of  the 
Church.  Discipline  here  means  the  care  of  the 
whole  Church  for  the  purity  of  life  of  the 
members.  The  execution  of  discipline  is  the 
special  charge  of  six  elders,  together  with  the 
two  ministers.  "  Provided  always  that  the  said 
Ministers  and  Seniors,  severally  and  jointly, 
shall  have  no  authority  to  make  any  manner 
of  Decrees  to  l)ind  the  Congregation,  or  any 
member  thereof;  but  shall  execute  such  Ordin- 
ances and  Decrees  as  shall  be  made  by  the 
Congregation,  and   to  them  deliver'd." 

And  yet  these  men  in  Frankfort  were  not 
true  Congregatioualists.  They  were  not  even 
"rigid  Puritans,"  for  they  quote  the  Apocrypha 
as  if  it  were  Scripture.  They  are  a  self-govern- 
ing community  ;  but  it  is  not  because  they  love 
the  condition,  or  know  that  Christ  intended  His 
disciples  to  be  such.  They  are  strangers,  living 
their  own  life  in  a  foreign  country,  and  bringing 
their  common  sense  to  decide  domestic  details 
which  do  not  fall  under  the  survey  of  the 
law  of  the  land.  They  accept,  and  invoke, 
and  plead  the  general  authority  of  the  magis- 
trates ;  and  after  all  the  trouble  they  have 
taken    with     their    order   and    discipline    they 


IIOBEUT  JiUOWNK  57 

welcome  tlie  time  when  they  shall  hiy  it 
aside.  They  had  hardly  familiarised  them- 
selves with  its  working  when  Queen  Mary 
died  ;  and  in  the  joy  of  their  return  to  Eng- 
land, they  were  willing  to  accept  the  order  to 
be  provided  for  them  by  Parliament.  'i'hc 
Entrlisli  cono-re^ation  at  Geneva,  which  had 
become  cold  to  them  in  the  former  troubles 
over  King  Edward's  Prayer-Book,  now  sought 
their  alliance  for  common  work  of  lieformation 
in  England.  These  sentences  occur  in  their 
reply  :— 

"  For  our  parts,  as  we  have  had  no  conten- 
tion with  you  at  all  aforetime,  so  we  purpose 
not  (as  we  trust  there  shall  Ije  no  cause)  to 
enter  into  contention  with  you  hereafter.  For 
ceremonies  to  contend  (where  it  shall  be  neither 
in  your  hands  or  ours  to  a})point  wliat  they 
shall  be,  ])ut  in  such  men's  wisdoms  as  shall 
be  appointed  to  the  devising  of  the  same,  and 
which  shall  be  received  by  common  consent 
of  the  Parliament)  it  shall  be  to  small  pur- 
pose. But  we  trust  that  both  true  Religion 
shall  be  restor'd,  and  tliat  we  shall  not  be 
burden'd  witli  uiij)i-olitable  ceremonies.  And 
therefore,   as    we  purpose    to   submit  ourselves 


58         CONGREGATIONALISM  BEFORE 

to  such  Orders  as  shall  be  established  by 
Authority ;  being  not  of  themselves  wicked, 
so  we  would  wish  you  willingly  to  do  the 
same.  For,  whereas  all  the  Reformed  Churches 
differ  among  themselves  in  divers  Ceremonies, 
and  yet  agree  in  the  unity  of  Doctrine,  we 
see  no  inconvenience  if  we  use  some  ceremonies 
diverse  from  them,  so  that  we  agree  in  the 
chief  points  of  our  Religion  ;  notwithstanding, 
if  any  shall  be  intruded  that  shall  be  offensive, 
we,  upon  just  conference  and  deliberation  upon 
the  same,  at  our  meeting  with  }'ou  in  England 
(which  we  trust  by  God's  Grace  will  be  shortly) 
will  lirotherly  join  with  you  to  be  suiters  for 
the  reformation  and  abolishing  of  the  same. 
In  the  mean  season,  let  us  with  one  Heart  and 
Mind  call  to  the  Almighty  God,  that  of  His 
infinite  Mercy  He  will  finish  and  establish  that 
Work  wdiich  He  hath  begun  in  our  country, 
and  that  we  may  all  lovingly  consent  together 
in  the  earnest  setting  forth  of  His  Truth,  that 
God  may  be  known  and  exalted,  and  His 
Church  perfectly  Iniilt  up  thro'  Christ  our 
Lord." 


ROBEliT  BROWNE  59 

III 

A  contemporaneous  movement  of  events 
toward  tlie  assertion  of  Congregational  Inde- 
pendency shewed  itself  in  England  in  a  dif- 
ferent, but  still  more  effective  way — not  by 
internal  controversy,  the  struggle  for  authority 
between  the  ministry  and  the  people,  but  by 
fidelity  under  persecution.  The  reforming  party 
was  impoverished  by  the  self-l)anishment  of  so 
many  to  the  Continent.  Their  scholars  went  to 
the  university  cities  of  Germany  and  Switzer- 
land, taking  with  them  a  number  of  students 
who  formed  an  important  part  of  the  English 
Churches  abroad.  Many  of  their  rich  people 
went  also,  and  those  self-reliant  men  who 
were  confident  of  their  ability  to  earn  a  living 
wherever  they  might  be.  Of  the  leaders  who 
remained  behind,  the  most  influential  were  in 
prison :  l)ut  the  humble,  dispirited  common 
people  met  for  worship  and  encouragement 
of  one  another  by  study  of  the  Scriptures. 
They  were  exhorted  to  continue  the  practice 
by  letters  from  the  Fleet  and  King's  Bench 
jails,  and  such  as  grew  indillerent.  justifying 
tiieir  conformity  by  pleading  that  tliougli   their 


Go         CUNOUEGATIONALISM  BEFORE 

bodily  presence  might  be  in  the  parish  churches 
their  hearts  were  not  there,  were  severely  cen- 
sured. These  small  dispersed  bodies  of  the 
faithful  are  addressed  as  the  true  Church  of 
God  in  England.  Coverdale,  editing  letters 
from  Bishop  Hooper  and  Archdeacon  Philpot, 
written  in  their  captivity,  addresses  them  to 
"  the  congregation,"  using  the  precise  word 
which  in  his  New  Testament  he  uniformly 
employs  in  translation  of  the  term  eKKXtjcrla. 
"  A  letter  sent  to  the  Christian  congregation, 
wherein  he  (Bishop  Hooper)  proveth  that  true 
faith  cannot  be  kept  secret  in  the  heart,  with- 
out confession  thereof  openly  to  the  world 
where  occasion  serveth."  "  A  letter  which  he 
(Master  John  Philpot)  sent  to  the  Christian 
congregation,  exhorting  them  to  refrain  them- 
selves from  the  idolatrous  service  of  the  Papists, 
and  to  serve  God  with  a  pure  and  undefiled 
conscience  after  His  Word." 

In  these  inscriptions  by  Coverdale,  as  in  the 
story  of  the  Troubles  in  Frankfort,  the  use  of 
the  words  congregation,  church,  fluctuates  be- 
tween the  "  Several  Church,"  as  it  came  to  be 
called,  and  the  Protestant  Church  of  England. 
It  is   a   noteworthy  fact,    one   which   may  first 


ROBERT  BROWNE  6i 

strike  the  sectarian  witli  surprise,  that  at 
the  beginning  of  the  Puritan  controversy,  the 
word  church  was  freely  used  l)y  all  parties  alike, 
of  the  "  particular  "  or  "  several  "  Church — the 
Congregational  sense  ;  of  the  Church  of  England 
— the  National  sense ;  and  the  Church  Univer- 
sal— the  Catholic  sense.  A  little  later,  when 
the  time  came  for  formulating  theories  of 
Church  government,  a  more  exclusive  use  of 
the  term  began.  Bancroft,  who  succeeded 
Whitgift  in  the  See  of  Canterbury,  was 
startled  at  the  bare  Erastianism  of  his  prede- 
cessor, and  affirmed  that  there  could  be  no 
Church  without  the  divinely  ordained  Episco- 
pate. Browne  and  Barrowe  had  been  before 
him  with  the  affirmation  that  there  could  be 
no  Church  where  there  was  not  the  discipline 
which  Christ  commanded.  And  this  habit  has 
come  down  to  our  own  time.  There  is  scarcely 
an  Anglican  who  ever  speaks  of  Congregationa- 
lists,  Bresbyterians,  or  Methodists,  as  being 
Churches,  he  calls  them  "  religious  societies." 
The  Independent  or  Congregational  doctrine 
was  very  strict  in  limiting  the  word  "church  ' 
to  two  applications — the  particular  Congrega- 
tion   and    the    whole    body    of    Christians    in 


62         CONGREGATIONALISM  BEFORE 

heaven  and  earth.  I  have  known  Congrega- 
tionalists  who  have  rejoiced  in  the  fact  that 
they  have  never  committed  the  fault  of  calling 
the  English  Establishment  a  Church.  Robinson, 
indeed,  and  others  denied  that  they  were  so 
exclusive,  acknowledging  that  there  might  be 
pure  congregations  within  the  Establishment, 
and  that  these  w^ere  rightly  spoken  of  as 
Churches.  The  Presbyterian  habit  has  been 
more  generous  than  that  of  the  Anglicans  and 
the  Congregationalists  ;  they  have  not  refused 
to  call  Churches  those  organised  Christian 
fellowships  which  have  not  adopted  the  Pres- 
byterian discipline.  And  in  this  they  are 
faithful  to  the  tradition  of  the  Puritan  con- 
troversy, which  had  come  down  from  the  days 
of  the  Marian  controversy.  Archbishop  Whit- 
gift  wrote  frankly  of  "  particular  Churches "  ; 
Cartwright  of  "distinct  Churches,"  "particular 
Churches,"  and  "  the  whole  Church  of  England  ;" 
John  Robinson  of  the  "  parish  Churches,"  ^  and 
"the  Church  of  England." 

It  is  not  easy  to  conjecture  how  many  of 
these  scattered  Churches  there  were  under  the 
persecution.     We  only  know  that  in   different 

'  Meaning  tlie  congregation,  not  the  building. 


ROBERT  BROWNE  r,3 

parts  of  England  there  were  some.  History 
has  fixed  its  attention  on  those  in  London. 
Protestants  met  in  the  city,  in  private  houses  ; 
on  the  outskirts,  in  Islington,  there  were  some 
gravel  pits  where  they  assembled.  They  had 
regular  preaching ;  they  recognised  each  other 
as  members  of  a  common  fellowship.  A  sen- 
tence in  Georo-e  Johnson's  "  Brief  Discourse 
of  Troubles  in  Amsterdam"  (the  book  in 
Trinity  College  Library,  Cambridge,  from  which 
Dr.  Dexter  drew  his  narration  of  the  disagree- 
able bickering  about  the  pastor's  wife  and  her 
clothes)  throws  light  on  the  connection  between 
these  London  conventicles  and  the  body  which 
afterward  became  the  Southwark  Church,  the 
first  Congregational  Church  in  England.  It 
refers  to  the  time  when  the  pastor,  Francis 
Johnson,  was  in  jorison.  "  Alderman  Tailor's 
wife,  an  old  professor  since  Queen  Mary's  days, 
having  sent  him  maintenance  and  help  in  his 
imprisonment,  said,  when  she  saw  his  wife's 
pride,  that  she  would  not  give  any  mainte- 
nance to  maintain  pride."  The  use  of  the 
word  "  professor "  here  is  at  once  intelligible 
to  old  -  fashir)iiod  Independents ;  to  them  a 
"professor"   was  a  church  member. 


64        CONGREGATIONALISM  BEFORE 

The  assemblies  were  discontinued  on  the 
accession  of  Elizabeth ;  they  were  resumed 
when  it  became  clear  that  she  did  not  intend 
any  further  reformation,  and  then  they  took 
a  more  ordered  character.  There  was  a  Church 
in  the  city  which  had  a  minister,  and  observed 
the  Communion  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  When 
he  was  taken  to  prison  they  chose  another, 
a  Scotsman,  who  had  heard  of  their  worship, 
and  joined  himself  to  them.  Their  deacon, 
Cuthbert  Sympson,  was  burnt.  We  read  of 
baptisms  and  marriages ;  the  order  of  their 
service  was  described  by  spies,  and  recorded 
in  depositions  as  the  habit  of  such  assemblies. 
Then  comes  the  beautiful  story  of  the  Church  in 
the  prisons,  "whereof  Mr.  Fitz  was  pastor."  It 
put  out  a  manifesto:  "The  order  of  the  Privye 
Churche  in  London,  whiche  by  the  malice  of 
Satan  is  falselie  slandered  and  evill  spoken 
of " ;  and  a  petition  to  the  Queen,  in  which 
they  say,  "According  to  the  saying  of  the 
Almighty  our  God  (Matt,  xviii.  20),  '  wherever 
two  or  three  are  gathered  together  in  my 
name,  there  am  I,'  so  we,  a  poor  congregation 
whom  God  hath  separated  from  the  churches 
of  England   and   from   the  mingled   and  false 


robi<;rt  nuoWNE  65 

worshipping  therein  used,  out  of  the  which 
assemblies  the  Lord  our  only  Saviour  hath 
called  us,  and  still  calleth,  saying,  come  out 
from  among  them,  and  separate  yourselves 
from  them,  and  touch  no  unclean  thing,  then 
will  I  receive  you,  and  I  will  be  your  God, 
and  you  shall  be  my  sons  and  daughters,  saith 
the  Lord  (Cor.  vi.  17,  18).  So  as  God  giveth 
us  strength  at  this  day,  we  do  serve  the  Lord 
every  Sabbath  day  in  houses,  and  on  the  fourth 
day  in  the  week  we  meet  or  come  together 
weekly  to  use  prayer  and  exercise  discipline 
on  them  which  do  deserve  it,  by  the  strength 
and  sure  warrant  of  the  Lord's  good  word, 
as  in  Matt,  xviii.    15-18  (i   Cor.  v.)." 

The  persecution  of  Separatists  under  Eliza- 
beth was  not  so  bloody  as  that  of  Protestants 
under  j\Iary  ;  but  it  was  equally  relentless,  and 
perhaps  even  more  searching.  An  extract  from 
the  examination  of  a  prisoner,  chosen  to  be 
interrogated  because  he  was  so  venerable  an 
old  man,  shew^s  why  these  people  thought 
themselves  compelled  to  form  churches  of  their 
own,  and  how  they  associated  themselves  with 
the  sufferers  of  the  preceding  reign.  "  So  long 
as   we   might    have    the    word    freely   preached 


66        CONGREGATIONALISM  BEFORE 

and  the  sacraments  administered  without  the 
preferring  of  idolatrous  gear  about  it,  we  never 
assembled  together  in  houses.  But  when  it 
came  to  this  point,  that  all  our  preachers  were 
displaced  by  your  law,  that  would  not  sub- 
scribe to  your  apparel  and  your  law,  so  that 
we  could  not  hear  none  of  them  in  any  church 
by  the  space  of  seven  or  eight  weeks,  except 
Father  Coverdale,  of  whom  we  have  a  good 
opinion,  and  yet  (God  knoweth)  the  man  was 
so  fearful  that  he  durst  not  be  known  unto  us 
where  he  preached,  though  we  sought  it  at 
his  house ;  and  then  we  were  troubled  and 
commanded  to  your  courts  day  by  day  for 
not  coming  to  our  parish  churches.  Then  we 
bethought  us  what  were  best  to  do ;  and  w^e 
remembered  that  there  was  a  cono^regation  of 
us  in  this  city  in  Queen  Mary's  days,  and  a 
congregation  at  Geneva,  which  used  a  book 
and  order  of  preaching,  ministering  of  the 
sacraments  and  discipline,  most  agreeable  to 
the  word  of  God,  which  book  is  allowed  by 
that  godly  and  well  -  learned  man.  Master 
Calvin,  and  the  preachers  there,  which  book 
and  order  we  now  hold." 

John  Penry  goes  further.     He  shews  us  the 


troubled  Tuiitans  looking  back  on  the  days  of 
Mary,  and  thinking  that  her  open  and  sanguin- 
ary hostility  to  Protestantism,  under  any  guise, 
w^as  better  than  Elizabeth's  purpose  of  saving 
the  national  Church  l)y  the  sacrifice  of  what 
the  Church,  in  their  opinion,  lived  for.  One 
of  the  bits  of  evidence  on  which  he  was  con- 
victed and  hanged  was  the  draft  of  a  petition 
to  the  Queen,  which  was  found  in  his  house, 
penned  in  heat  as  something  which  he  would 
like  to  present  to  her  with  his  own  hand.  Here 
are  one  or  two  extracts  :  "If  we  had  had  Qucun 
Mary's  days,  I  think  we  should  have  had  as 
flourishing  a  church  this  day  as  ever  any  ;  for 
it  is  well  known  that  there  was  then  in  London, 
under  the  burden,  and  elsewhere  in  exile,  more 
flourishing  churches  than  any  now  tolerated  by 
your  authority.  .  .  .  Thus  much  we  must  needs 
say,  that,  in  all  likelihood,  if  the  days  of  your 
sister  Queen  Mary,  and  her  persecution,  had 
continued  unto  this  day,  that  the  Church  of 
God  in  Eno;land  had  been  far  more  flourishinfr 
than  at  this  day  it  is  :  for  then,  madam,  the 
Church  of  (^od  within  this  land  and  elsewhere, 
being  strangers,  enjoyed  the  ordinances  of  God's 
holy  word  as  far  as  then  they  saw. 


68         CONGREGATIONALISM  BEFORE 

"  But  since  your  majesty  came  unto  your 
crown  we  have  bad  whole  Christ  Jesus,  God 
and  man,  but  we  must  serve  him  only  in 
heart. 

"And  if  those  days  had  continued  to  this 
time,  and  those  lights  risen  therein  which  by 
the  mercy  of  God  have  since  shined  in  England, 
it  is  not  to  be  doubted  but  the  Church  of 
England,  even  in  England,  had  far  surpassed 
all  the  Reformed  Churches  in  the  world." 

"  Then,  madam,  any  of  our  brethren  durst 
not  have  been  seen  within  the  tents  of  Anti- 
christ ;  now  they  arc  ready  to  defend  them  to 
be  the  Lord's,  and  that  he  has  no  other  taber- 
nacle upon  earth  but  them." 

IV 

These  quotations  indicate  the  strain  under 
which  zeulous  reformers  were  labouring  in  the 
days  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  In  the  light  of  them 
we  understand  the  significance  of  the  title  to 
one  of  the  parts  of  Robert  Browne's  book, 
published  in  1582:  "A  Treatise  of  Reforma- 
tion without  tarrying  for  anie,  and  of  the 
wickedness  of  those  Preachers,  which  will  not 


ROBERT  BROWNE  69 

reforme  themselves  and  tlieir  charge,  because 
they  will  tarie  till  the  Magistrate  commaunde 
and  compell  tliem." 

Let  me  frankly  confess — 1  do  not  like  Ro])ert 
Browne ;  I  have  not  the  confidence  in  him  ex- 
pressed by  Dr.  Dexter  and  Dr.  Dale.  He  was 
a  man  offensive  to  his  opponents  and  objec- 
tionable to  his  friends  ;  he  betrayed  the  causes 
to  which  he  attached  himself;  and  I  do  not 
wonder  at  the  heat  with  which  English  dis- 
senters have  always  repudiated  the  nickname 
"  Brownists."  But  he  was  a  clear  and  resolute 
thinker  ;  he  gave  himself  to  study  the  problems 
of  his  time  in  the  simple  light  of  the  New 
Testament,  and  he  produced  an  admirable  and 
complete  doctrine  of  the  Church,  which  at 
once  determined  the  whole  future  of  Congre- 
gationalism. 

He  was  not  so  thorough  an  opponent  of  the 
action  of  the  State  in  religion  as  Mr.  Fletcher 
takes  him  to  have  been.  He  makes  a  singular 
statement  to  the  effect  that  the  magistrate  has 
no  ric^ht  to  dej^rade  a  faithful  minister,  but  that 
he  has  the  right  to  promote  him,  on  the  ground 
that  the  State  ought  to  advance  good  men.  It 
was  as  difiicult  for  him  as  it  is  for  us  to  dis- 


70         CONGREGATIONALISM  BEFORE 

criminate  between  the  personal  influence  which 
a  man  in  office  may  properly  use  for  the  ad- 
vancement of  religion  and  that  official  action 
which  ought  not  to  be  put  forth  in  Church 
matters.  But  he  was  a  strenuous  advocate  of 
the  duty  of  Christian  believers  to  form  them- 
selves into  societies,  which  the  State  should 
not  interfere  with.  1  say  "  the  duty,"  not 
"the  right."  Of  course  the  duty  involves  the 
right ;  but  it  is  of  some  importance  which  of 
the  two  words  men  are  in  the  habit  of  usins;. 
"  There  is  a  substantial  identity  between  the  first 
Separatists  and  the  Congregationalists  of  to-day ; 
but  there  is  a  diff"erence  in  the  proportion  given 
to  difierent  aspects  of  the  truth  held  by  them 
in  common  and  the  tone  and  temper  of  their 
testimony.  Where  we  speak  of  the  right  of 
separation  they  speak  of  the  duty  of  separation. 
When  we  would  assert  the  sanction  of  Scrip- 
ture for  our  polity,  we  commonly  appeal  to 
the  words  of  Christ,  '  Where  two  or  three  are 
gathered  together  in  ]\Iy  name,  there  am  I  in 
the  midst  of  them.'  The  text  is  occasionally 
met  with  in  the  early  Separatist  literature ; 
])ut  far  more  commonly  we  have  the  precept, 
'  Come   ye    out  from  among  them,   and   l)e   ye 


ROBERT  BROWNE  71 

separate,  and  touch  not  the  unclean  thing.' 
It  recurs  ac-ain  and  ao-ain,  as  if  it  was  exertino; 
the  most  solemn  constraint  upon  their  con- 
science ;  and  equally  solemn  is  their  continua- 
tion of  the  (potation,  '  And  i  will  be  a 
Father  unto  you,  and  ye  shall  be  my  sons 
and  daughters,  saith  the  Lord  Almighty ; '  as 
if  the  Fatherhood  and  the  Sonship — words  so 
lightly  uttered — could  only  be  realised  after 
the  duty  of  separation  liad  been  fulfilled.  The 
very  name  '  Separatist,'  given  them  as  a  nick- 
name, l)ut  not  repudiated  l)y  them,  assumed 
rather  as  a  badge  of  their  fidelity,  shews 
how  often  this  passage  of  Scripture  was  on 
their  lips." 

With  the  circulation  of  Browne's  book  came  a 
breach,  which  proved  final,  between  the  Puri- 
tans and  tlie  Separatists.  Henceforth  Cart- 
wright  had  to  meet  two  sets  of  opponents : 
his  old  antagonists,  against  whom  he  had  to 
j  ustify  his  nonconformity  ;  his  former  associates, 
who  challenged  the  consistency,  even  the  recti- 
tude, of  his  continuing  in  a  Church  the  laws  of 
wliicli  lie  coidd  not  o])ey.  Tlic  contest  between 
the  Puritans  and  the  Separatists  was  just  as 
uncomj)nimising,     tliough     not    (piite    so    con- 


72         CONGREGATIONALISM  BEFORE 

stant,  as  that  between  them  both  and  the 
Anglicans.  There  could  be  no  harmony  be- 
tween men  who  thought  it  was  the  most  urG^ent 
Christian  duty  to  come  out  of  the  national 
Church  and  men  who  thought  they  were  bound 
by  their  allegiance  to  Christ  to  keep  in.  In 
the  course  of  the  discussion  three  points  ap- 
peared in  which  Puritanism  and  Separatism 
were  hopelessly  at  variance. 

(i.)  The  Separatists  made  much  of  purity  of 
fellowship,  and  tried  to  secure  it  by  looking 
to  the  personal  character,  as  well  as  to  the 
soundness  of  belief,  of  the  members.  It  may 
seem  strange  to-day,  when  all  the  evangelical 
Churches  insist  that  church  members  should 
be  living  members  of  the  body  of  C'hrist,  that 
the  Puritans  should  have  spoken  against  this. 
Two  reasons,  among  others,  appear  prominently. 
Their  learning  in  Church  history  misled  them ; 
they  had  the  Catholic  dread  of  Donatism.  You 
could  put  the  stiffest  Puritan  to  confusion  by 
calling  him  a  Donatist.  That  is  a  significant 
clause  in  the  definition  of  the  Church  in  the 
new  Frankfort  constitution  :  "  Honest  and  godly 
life,    if    not    in    the    whole   multitude,    yet    in 


ROBERT  BROWNE  73 

many  of  them  ; "  and  it  has  plenty  of  parallels. 
At  an  earlier  period  in  the  story,  when  there 
was  a  discussion  whether  the  conQ-rei^iation 
should  adopt  the  Anglican  ceremonies  or  follow 
the  example  of  Geneva,  the  question  was  put 
— a  proi^os  of  schism — "  whether  the  Donatists 
were  schismatics  ?  "  "Yes,"saith  Wittingliam, 
"  and  also  Hereticks,  but  you  are  deceiv'd,  if 
you  think  that  they  separated  themselves  for 
ceremonies."  Wittingham  was  a  prominent 
mem])cr  of  the  Puritan  section ;  but  he  was 
in  haste  to  repel  the  charge  of  Donatism.^ 
The  other  reason  was  the  Puritan's  dread  of  the 
Anabaptists,  and  his  sense  of  obligation  to  the 
national  Church.  When  the  first  English  pres- 
bytery, that  of  Wandsworth,  was  erected,  some 
of  the  parties  to  it  were  sent  to  Newgate.  After 
an  explanation  of  their  design  to  the  chaplain 
of  the  archbishop,  who  visited  them  in  prison, 
they  said,  "  We  are  not  for  an  unspotted  chun^h 
on  earth,  and,  therefore,  though  the  Church 
of  England  has  many  fjiults,  we  would  not 
willingly  leave  it."     To  the  Separatists  it  was 

'  John  Wesley  defended  himself  from  the  charge  of  schism  on 
precisely  tlie  same  ground  :  that  he  had  not  dei)artcd  from  tlie 
doctrine,  Init  in  some  rcsjjects  from  the  disci^jline  of  the  (Jliurcli. 


74         CONGREGATIONALISM  BEFORE 

matter  of  first  moment  to  seek  that  the 
Churches  on  earth  should  be  unspotted.  They 
knew  that  their  judgment  was  not  infallible, 
but  they  could  exercise  common  sense.  The 
distinction  between  the  visible  and  the  in- 
visible Church,  made  much  of  by  the  Puritans, 
was  repudiated  by  them  ;  they  believed  that 
Christian  character  was  patent,  and  that  it 
was  the  one  thins;  essential  to  a  true  fellow- 
ship.  The  history  of  Congregationalism  has 
confirmed  their  opinion  in  this  matter ;  purity 
of  fellowship  remains  the  first  demand  of  our 
Churches. 

(2.)  The  next  point  of  difference  between 
Puritans  and  Separatists  is  concerned  with  the 
place  of  the  people  —  the  members  —  in  the 
government  and  discipline  of  the  Church. 
The  Church,  says  Jacob,  is  a  certain  demo- 
cracy— that  is  its  political  character,  although 
Jacob  strongly  afi^^irms  that,  on  its  spiritual 
side,  it  is  a  monarchy,  Christ  being  the  King ; 
and  is  an  aristocracy  of  character.  Presby- 
terianism  has  been  proved  to  be  consistent 
with  democracy ;  modern  Presbyterianism  may 
be  described  as  an  ordered  representative  demo- 


ROBERT  BROWNE  75 

cracy.  The  tendency  in  Puritanism  to  l)ecome 
this  was  apprehended  at  once  by  the  Anglican 
party.  "  He  seeth  little,"  writes  Bishop  Sandys 
to  Lord  Burghley,  "who  does  not  perceive  that 
their  whole  proceedings  tend  to  a  mere  popu- 
larity," i.e.  popular  government.  "  In  the 
platform  set  down  by  these  new  builders  we 
evidently  see  the  spoliation  of  the  patrimony 
of  Christ,  and  a  popular  state  to  be  sought," 
write  Sandys  and  Grindal  to  another  prelate. 
But  Cart  Wright  was  as  great  a  foe  to  "popu- 
larity "  as  the  bishops  theniselves ;  the  people 
are  to  elect  their  ministers  and  leave  adminis- 
tration to  them. 

The  Separatists  called  the  members  indivi- 
dually to  take  part  in  the  government  of  the 
Church,  and  this  was  not  a  mere  demand  of  con- 
sistency in  the  working  out  of  their  doctrine  ; 
nor  was  it  a  bit  of  policy,  a  determination  to 
commit  the  people  as  deeply  as  possible  to 
the  cause.  It  was  the  result  of  experience 
also.  The  fidelity  of  the  people  had  been 
tried  in  times  of  persecution,  and  it  was  at 
least  equal  to  that  of  their  leaders.  The 
nunil)er  of  r(!cantations,  either  final  or  tem- 
porary,   is    oik;    of    the    most    patlictic    rc.'itiires 


-je         CONGREGATIONALISM  BEFORE 

in  the  story  of  the  English  martyrdoms ;  it 
lends  great  interest  to  that  first  chapter  of 
the  second  volume  of  Mr.  Fronde's  "History 
of  England,"  perhaps  the  most  beautiful  chapter 
in  the  book.  He  refers  us  to  Latimer's  account 
of  Bilney  as  a  typical  narrative.  "  I  knew  a 
man  myself,"  says  the  great  preacher,  "  Bilney, 
little  Bilney,  that  blessed  martyr  of  God,  what 
time  he  had  borne  his  fagot,  and  was  come 
again  to  Cambridge,  had  such  conflicts  within 
himself,  beholding  the  image  of  death,  that 
his  friends  were  afraid  to  let  him  be  alone ; 
they  were  fain  to  be  with  him  day  and  night, 
and  comforted  him  as  they  could,  but  no  com- 
forts would  serve.  As  for  the  comfortable 
places  of  Scripture,  to  bring  them  unto  him, 
it  was  as  though  a  man  would  run  him  through 
the  heart  with  a  sword  ;  yet  afterward,  for  all 
this,  he  w^as  revived,  and  took  his  death 
patiently,  and  died  well  against  the  tyrannical 
See  of  Rome."  Mr.  Trevelyan  gives  us  the 
same  picture.  There  are  so  many  recantations  ; 
even  John  Purvey,  the  valorous  fellow-worker 
with  Wyclif,  when  the  slaughter  l)egan,  re- 
canted ;  as  did  Cranmer  when  the  last  fires 
were    burning  out.     The  humbler  people  were 


ROBERT  BROWNE  77 

more  laithrul  tliaii  tlicir  leaders ;  not  recanta- 
tion, but  fidelity,  marks  the  story  of  the  peasant 
and  tlie  working  woman.  AVe  may  account 
for  this  fact,  may  plead  the  inJhience  of  cul- 
ture on  the  development  of  nerves,  and  the 
larfje-mindedness  which  suo-o-ests  doubt ;  but 
the  fact  remains — the  Christian  commonalty 
had  shewn  itself  worthy  to  be  trusted.  John 
Robinson's  noble  scorn  of  those  who  contemp- 
tuously upbraided  God's  people  with  incon- 
stancy, instability,  pride,  contention,  and  such 
like  evils,  nicknaming-  them  Symon  the  saddler, 
Tomkin  the  tailor,  Billy  the  bellows-mender, 
has  a  historical  justification  in  the  part  the 
people  had  taken  in  the  Reformation. 

Equally  has  experience  warranted  the  Separa- 
tists' confidence  in  the  a])ility  of  pure  churches 
to  maintain  a  lofty  ideal  of  fellowship  and 
mutual  edification.  Robinson's  testimony  to 
the  character  of  the  church  meetings  in  Leyden 
is  well  known.  "  If  ever  I  saw  the  beauty  of 
Zion,  and  the  glory  of  the  Eoi'd  filling  His 
tabernacle,  it  liatii  Ix'cii  in  the  manifestation 
of  the  divers  graces  of  God  in  the  Churcli,  in 
that  heavenly  harmony  and  comely  order 
wherein,  by  the  grace  of  God,  we  are  set  and 


78         CONGREGATIONALISM  BEFORE 

walk."  Henry  Barrowe — courtier,  law  student, 
man  of  tlie  world — said  the  same  thing  of  the 
Church  in  London.  "  The  solitary  and  con- 
templative life,"  said  Lancelot  Andrews  to  him 
when  he  was  in  jail,  "I  hold  the  most  blessed 
life.  It  is  the  life  I  would  choose."  Barrowe's 
reply  shows  something  of  the  inner  life  of  the 
Church  for  whose  sake  he  was  suffering.  "  You 
speak  philosophically,  but  not  Christianly.  So 
sweet  is  the  harmony  of  God's  graces  unto  me 
in  the  confrresration  and  the  conversation  of 
the  saints  at  all  times,  as  I  think  myself  as  a 
sparrow  on  the  housetop  when  I  am  exiled  from 
them."  From  that  time  to  our  own  the  most 
cultivated  and  saintly  leaders  in  Congregation- 
alism have  shewn  the  same  appreciation  of  the 
church  meeting.  It  would  be  easy  to  make  a 
catena  of  utterances  to  this  effect,  not  from 
controversial  writings  or  sermons,  but  from 
hymns,  and  letters,  and  biographical  memoirs, 
ending  with  Dr.  Dale's  lofty  description  of  its 
sanctity  in  his  address  to  a  joint  meeting  of 
the  Baptist  and  Congregational  Unions  in  1886. 
"To  be  at  a  church  meeting — apart  from  any 
prayer  that  is  offered,  any  hymn  that  is  sung, 
any  words  that  are  spoken — is  for  me  one  of  the 


KUUEUT  UIMJWNE  79 

chief  means  of  grace.  To  know  that  I  am  sur- 
rounded by  men  and  women  who  dwell  in  God, 
who  have  received  the  Holy  Ghost,  with  whom 
1  am  to  share  the  eternal  righteousness  and 
eternal  rapture  of  the  great  life  to  come,  this 
is  blessedness.  1  breathe  a  Divine  air.  I  am 
in  the  new  Jerusalem,  which  has  come  down 
out  of  heaven  from  God,  and  the  nations  of  the 
saved  are  walking  its  streets  of  gold.  1  rejoice 
in  the  joy  of  Christ  over  those  whom  lie  has 
delivered  from  eternal  death  and  lifted  into  the 
light  and  glory  of  God.  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven 
is  there." 

(3.)  The  third  point  of  difference  between  the 
Separatists  and  the  Puritans  is  the  confidence 
of  the  Puritans  that  it  was  possible  for  them  to 
give  adequate  expression  to  the  truth  of  God 
in  creeds  and  confessions,  while  the  Separatists 
affirmed  that  all  creeds  and  confessions  were 
partial  and  temporary  utterances,  for  that  the 
Lord  had  more  light  yet  to  break  forth  out  of 
His  holy  word.  Their  church  covenants  bound 
the  members  to  hold  all  God's  truth  already 
revealed  or  yet  to  be  revealed.  So  deeply  was 
this  thought,   tliat  there  is  no  finality  in  doc- 


8o         CONGREGATIONALISM  BEFORE 

tiiiie,  rooted  in  tlicir  faith,  that  the  May- 
flower Compact  applies  it  to  political  principles. 
The  sioners  of  that  document  bound  themselves 
to  no  constitution  already  adopted,  but  "  to 
enact,  constitute,  and  frame  such  just  and 
equall  lawes,  ordinances,  acts,  constitutions, 
and  offices,  from  time  to  time,  as  shall  be 
thought  most  mcete  and  good  for  the  generall 
good  of  the  Colonic,  unto  which  we  promise  all 
due  submission  and  obedience."  The  growth  of 
toleration  followed  from  the  adoption  of  this 
principle.  Again  and  again  the  limited  tolera- 
tion of  the  Independents  has  been  pointed  out ; 
it  was  for  Christians,  Protestant  Christians  only. 
They  had  not  solved — we  have  not  yet  solved — 
the  problem  of  tolerating  all  religious  beliefs  in 
a  community,  when  such  toleration  would  pro- 
bably result  in  an  attempt,  by  some  of  the  sects 
tolerated,  religiously  to  upset  the  order  of  civil 
jjovernment.  Their  claim  to  be  consistent  lovers 
of  religious  liberty  does  not  lie  in  their  success- 
ful grappling  with  this  difficulty ;  although 
English  Congregationalists  have  been  always 
advocates  of  the  largest  liberty  the  Government 
has  been  ready  to  grant,  and  have  urged  a  full 
application  of  the  method  of  freedom.    It  lies 


ROBERT  BROWNF:  8i 

ill  their  tenacious,  couiageous  acknowledgment 
tliat  never  yet  has  so  much  enlightenment  been 
granted  to  the  interpreters  of  Clod's  revealed 
will,  that  they  could  say,  "  We  know  not  in 
part,  but  perfectly." 

I  referred  in  my  former  T.ecture  to  the  ftict 
that  the  Separatists  were  living  in  the  last 
hours  of  Absolutism  in  CInnch  and  State,  on 
the  eve  of  English  democracy.  Many  interest- 
ing discussions  have  been  going  on  as  to  the 
causes  of  this  democratic  movement,  and  the 
conditions  under  which  it  Ijecame  inevitable. 
The  Teutonic  home,  and  the  traditions  of  the 
German  agricultural  life  ;  trade  guilds  and  the 
growth  of  large  towns  ;  the  free  municipalities 
of  Holland  and  the  intercourse  between  Dutch 
and  English  manufacturers ;  the  influence  of 
the  Renascence  and  the  printing-press  —  all 
have  been  brought  in  to  illustrate  a  fact  which 
summed  up  in  itself  all  that  these  forces  had 
to  give.  Such  considerations  shew  us  what 
made  it  possible  for  Congregational  Churches 
to  be,  but  they  do  not  account  for  Con- 
gregationalism. It  is  always  to  the  Bible 
the    Separatists    turn     when     they    would    de- 


8  2  CONGREGATIONALISM 

fend  their  ecclesiastical  faith.  It  is  no 
wonder  that  such  men  found  Congrega- 
tionalism in  the  New  Testament ;  the  won- 
der would  have  been  had  they  found  anything 
else. 


LECTUIIE    Til 

PRESBYTERIANS   AND    INDEPENDENTS 


Di".  Shaw's  "  Church  of  the  Commonwealth "  —  The 
Church  of  England  a  Presbyterian  Church — The  short 
Duration  of  this  Establishment — English  Presbyterianism 
prejudiced  by  its  History— The  Scottish  Committee  and 
the  Westminster  Assembly — The  Scottish  Army  and  the 
Scottish  Arguments — A  rigid  Presbyterianism  rejected  by 
the  English  People — Baxter's  Testimony — The  Voluntary 
Associations  —  Adam  Martindale  —  Independents  in  the 
Westminster  Assembly  —  Declaration  of  Liberty  of  Con- 
science— What  it  meant — Independents'  Scheme  of  Tolera- 
tion —  Fails  from  Over  -  Definition  —  Baxter  and  the 
Fundamentals  —  Independents'  Zeal  for  Orthodoxy — Pro- 
jects for  Union  between  Presbyterians  and  Independ- 
ents— "The  Happy  Union" — The  Crispian  Controversy 
—  The  Salters'  Hall  Split  —  Unitarianism  —  Evangelical 
Presbyterians  become  Congregationalists — Defoe  Memorial 
Church — Relation  of  Separatists  to  Independents. 


LECTUUE   111 

PRESBYTEIIIANS   AND   INDEPENDENTS 

A  VALUABLE  addition  lias  been  made  to  the 
story  of  tlie  struggle  l)etween  Presbyterianism 
and  Independency  in  England  by  tlie  publica- 
tion of  Dr.  Shaw's  "  History  of  the  English 
Church  during  the  Civil  Wars  and  under  the 
Commonwealth."  ^  He  had  previously  edited 
the  Minutes  of  the  Manchester  Classis,  1646- 
60,  and  the  Minutes  of  the  Bury  Classis,  1647- 
57,  and  had  demonstrated  how  systematically 
it  had  been  attempted  to  work  the  Presby- 
terian government  in  Lancashire.  In  his  later 
book  he  has  slicwn  tliat  the  system  was  more 
widely  prevalent  tlian  we  have  been  in  the 
habit  of  thinking.  The  very  title  is  signifi- 
cant. "The  English  Clmrch,"  as  the  Parlia- 
ment established  it  in  1648,  and  as  Cromwell 
administered  it,  was  a  Presbyterian  Church. 
The  Scottish   Commissioners   had  succeeded  in 

'   Luiidun  :   Longman.s,  (Jreen  &  Co.,  1900. 
85 


86     PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS 

forcing  through  the  Westminster  Assembly  a 
complete  scheme  of  consistorial  rule — Congre- 
gational Presbyteries,  that  is  the  English  name 
for  Kirk  Sessions ;  Classes,  the  English  name 
for  Presbyteries ;  Provincial  Synods ;  and  a 
National  Assembly — the  orders  ranging  one 
above  another,  in  ecclesiastical  authority  as 
well  as  in  dignity.  This  system  was  adopted 
after  debate,  and  promulgated  by  Acts  of 
Parliament,  exactly  as  the  present  Episcopal 
Church  was  established. 

Here  are  some  words  from  Dr.  Shaw's  pre- 
face :  "The  years  1640-60  witnessed  the  most 
complete  and  drastic  revolution  which  the 
Church  of  England  has  ever  undergone.  Its 
whole  structure  was  ruthlessly  demolished — 
Episcopacy,  the  Spiritual  Courts,  Deans  and 
Chapters,  Convocation,  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  the  Thirty- nine  Articles,  and  the 
Psalter.  .  .  .  On  the  clean  -  swept  ground  an 
entirely  novel  church  system  was  erected. 
In  place  of  Episcopal  Church  government  a 
Presbyterian  organisation  was  introduced,  and 
a  Presbyterian  system  of  ordination.  For  tlie 
Spiritual  Courts  were  substituted  Presbyterian 
Assemblies    (Parochial,    Classical,    and    Provin- 


PRESBYTERIANS  AND   INDEPENDENTS     87 

cial),  acting  with  a  very  real  censorial  juris- 
diction, but  in  final  subordination  to  a  Parlia- 
mentary Committee  sitting  at  Westminster. 
Instead  of  tlie  Thirty-nine  Articles  the  Con- 
fession of  Faith  was  introduced,  and  the  Direc- 
tory in  place  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 
New  catechisms  and  a  new  metrical  version 
were  prepared,  a  parochial  survey  of  the  whole 
country  was  carried  out,  and  extensive  re- 
organisation of  parishes  effected."  "  There  is 
hardly  a  parallel  in  history  to  such  a  consti- 
tutional revolution  as  this." 

It  was,  however,  oidy  a  paper  revolution. 
The  Lonsj  Parliament  was  not  the  nation  ;  it 
would  not  have  been  the  Long  Parliament 
had  its  leaders  thought  that  they  had  the 
judgment  of  the  people  with  them.  Nor  did 
the  Westminster  Assemldy  represent  the  re- 
ligious spirit  and  convictions  of  England.  Not 
more  than  half  the  counties  even  professed 
to  adopt  the  classical  system ;  where  it  was 
adopted  it  was  only  indifferently  observed.  In 
the  few  cases,  as  in  Lancashire,  where  the 
classis  met  regularly,  there  \vas  opposition  to 
it  l)oth  from  ministers  and  Churches.  It  is 
very   improbable    that    it    would    have    become 


88     PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS 

efiective  in  time,  and  time  was  not  given. 
Twelve  years  after  its  passing  through  Parlia- 
ment came  the  Restoration,  and  the  re-estab- 
lishment of  Episcopacy.  In  1662  there  was 
a  new  Act  of  Uniformity,  and  about  two 
thousand  Puritan  clergymen,  most  of  them 
styled  Presbyterian,  were  ejected  from  their 
livings.  In  1688,  when  William  III.  began 
his  rule  of  fourteen  years,  the  hope  of  the 
Presbyterians  partially  revived.  Now  they 
would  have  been  content  with  far  less  than 
a  National  Presbyterian  Church  ;  they  did, 
however,  expect  that  the  Church  of  England 
would  have  been  made  Inroad  enough  to  take 
them  in.  A  Bill  of  Comprehension  was  laid 
before  Parliament  with  that  object.  It  passed 
the  House  of  Lords,  but  was  rejected  by 
the  Commons.  In  the  following  year  '"the 
Toleration  Act "  was  passed  ;  it  was  a  statute 
"  for  exempting  Protestant  subjects  dissent- 
ing from  the  Church  of  England  from  the 
penalties  of  certain  laws."  The  Presbyterians, 
with  other  Nonconformists,  were  allowed  liberty 
of  public  worship  and  self-government ;  but 
they  were  declared  dissenters,  not  members 
of  the   Church   of  England.     From    that    time 


PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS     89 

Presbytcrianism  steadily  declined.  In  the 
eighteenth  century  most  Evangelical  Presby- 
terian churches  became  Congregational  ;  a  por- 
tion of  the  Unitarian  denomination  preserving 
the  tradition  of  the  old  system,  but  loosely 
administering  it,  is  what  now  remains  of  the 
Classical  Church  of  the  Commonwealth. 


I 

English  Pres])ytcrianisin  was  prejudiced  at 
the  first,  and  ultimately  was  ruined  by  the  very 
circumstances  which  alone  made  its  adoption 
possible.  It  was  l)orn  in  the  throes  of  revolu- 
tion. It  was  a  Church  of  safety — to  borrow 
the  language  of  revolutionary  times.  The  Long 
Parliament  had  become  a  mere  "  Committee 
of  Safety,"  and  the  establishment  of  a  Presby- 
terian Church  was  one  of  its  necessities.  In 
the  struggle  between  the  Parliamentary  forces 
and  the  army  of  Charles  I.  an  alliance  with 
Scotland  seemed  essential,  and  the  only  terms 
on  which  the  Scots  w^ould  grant  their  he][)  were 
the  adoption  by  England  of  the  Solemn  League 
and  Covenant,  and  the  establishment  of  the 
National    Church    after   the   rigid    Presl)yterian 


90     PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS 

model.  To  a  religious  mind  the  story  of  the 
Westminster  Assembly  is  painful  reading — the 
contrast  is  so  great  between  the  dignity,  the 
solemn  severity,  the  large  and  lofty  reach  of  the 
Confession  of  Faith,  and  the  subtlety  and  dis- 
ingenuousness  which  marked  the  ecclesiastical 
discussions.  A  political  league  with  Scotland 
was  desired,  the  religious  covenant  was  un- 
welcome. Engagements  of  this  sort  are  uncon- 
genial to  the  English  temper  ;  the  more  sacred 
their  terms,  the  more  the  Englishman  shrinks 
from  them.  But  dogmatic  confidence  and 
political  necessity  are  both  purblind  and  ruth- 
less ;  the  covenant,  with  its  solemn  adjuration 
of  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  had  to  be 
taken.  Attempts  to  reconcile  the  demands  of 
the  Presbyterian  majority  and  the  scruples  of 
the  Independents  were  thwarted  by  the  Scot- 
tish Commissioners,  some  of  whom  took  small 
part  in  the  discussions  of  the  Assembly,  but 
ceaselessly  acted  on  it  through  its  Scottish 
debaters.  Here  is  an  extract  from  Baillie.  He 
is  reporting  a  discussion  on  the  ruling  eldership, 
in  which  the  main  body  were  opposed  by  the 
Independents.  "  When  all  were  tired,  it  came 
to  the  question.     There  was  no  doubt  but  we 


PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS     91 

would  have  carried  it  by  far  most  voices ;  yet 
])ecause  the  opposite  were  men  verie  consider- 
a])le,  aV)ove  all  gracious  and  learned  little  Palmer, 
we  agreed  upon  a  committee  to  satisfie  if  it 
were  possible  the  dissenters.  For  this  end  we 
meet  to-day,  and  I  hope  ere  all  he  done  we  shall 
agree.  All  of  them  were  ever  willing  to  admitt 
chlers  in  a  prudentiall  way ;  but  this  to  us 
seemed  a  most  dangerous  and  unhappie  way, 
and  therefore  was  peremptorily  rejected.  We 
trust  to  carry  at  last,  with  the  contentment  of 
sundry  once  opposite,  and  silence  of  all,  their 
divine  and  scriptural  institution.  This  is  a 
point  of  high  consequence,  and  upon  no  other 
we  expect  so  great  ditiicultie,  except  alone  on  In- 
dependencie,  wherewith  we  purpose  not  to  medic 
in  haste  till  it  please  God  to  advance  our  armie, 
which  we  expect  will  much  assist  our  arguments.'" 
We  are  not  to  read  his  words  as  a  sucfSes- 
tion  that  the  Scottish  troops  are  to  come  to 
London  and  train  their  fxuns  on  the  Jcrusa- 
lem  Chamber.  It  is  not  the  arm\ ,  but  the 
advancement  of  the  army,  which  Baillie  looks 
to  to  assist  tlie  arguments,  in  tjic  early  days 
of  the  Civil  War,  while  Cromwell's  series 
of   brilliant    victories    was    not    dreamed    of,    a 


92     PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS 

(leraonstriition  that  the  issue  of  the  struggle 
depended  on  the  Scottish  army  would  facilitate 
a  Presbyterian  triumph  in  the  Assembly.  When 
the  Scottish  troops  gained  a  victory,  the  Presby- 
terians were  domineering ;  when  the  Parlia- 
mentarian forces  were  successful,  the  Independ- 
ents became  exacting.  However  conciliatory 
the  Presbyterians  might  occasionally  be,  the 
Scottish  Commissioners  were  always  biding  their 
time  to  reassert  themselves.  At  last  they 
carried  their  points,  but  the  Assembly  had 
lono^  ceased  to  have  moral  weigrht.  An  endur- 
ing  Church  could  not  be  established  in  such 
times,  and  by  such  men. 

Another  difficulty  appeared  when  the  attempt 
was  made  to  settle  Presbyterianism  in  the 
parishes  and  counties — the  Churches  would  not 
have  it.  There  were  not  approving  clergymen 
enough  in  most  districts  to  work  the  polity,  nor 
men  fit  to  be  ordained.  Dr.  Shaw  says  broadly, 
but  correctly,  that  "  the  Presbyterianism  of 
tlie  Civil  War  was  an  abrupt  and  startling  and 
illogical  expansion  from  the  basis  of  English 
Puritanism."  ^  He  quotes  Baxter,  not  as  uni- 
formly accurate  in  his  estimate  of  facts,  but  as 

'  Sliaw,  vol.  i.  jx  6. 


PRESBYTERIANS  AND   INDEPENDENTS    93 

right  in  tone.  "  Tliouoh  Presbytery  generally 
took  in  Scotland,  yet  it  was  l)ut  a  stranger 
here,  and  it  found  some  ministers  that  lived  in 
conformity  to  the  bishops'  liturgies  and  cere- 
monies (however  much  they  might  wish  for 
reformation),  and  the  most  that  quickly  after 
were  ordained  were  but  young  students  in  the 
universities  at  the  time  of  the  change  of  church 
government,  and  had  never  well  studied  the 
points  on  either  side ;  and  though  most  of  the 
ministers  then  in  England  saw  nothino;  in  the 
Presbyterian  way  which  they  could  not  cheer- 
fully concur  in,  yet  it  was  but  few  that  had 
resolved  on  their  principles.  And  when  I  came 
to  try  it,  I  found  that  most  that  ever  I  could 
meet  with  were  against  the  jus  divinum  of  lay 
elders,  and  for  the  moderate  primitive  Episco- 
pacy, and  for  a  narrow  Congregational  or 
parochial  extent  of  ordinary  churches,  and  lor 
an  accommodation  of  all  parties  in  order  to 
concord."  Baxter's  words  are  very  significant. 
The  English  people  are  practically,  not  academi- 
cally, minded  ;  it  is  at  once  their  strength  and 
their  weakness.  In  Parliament,  in  town  coun- 
cils, in  religious  committees,  and  business  meet- 
ings, you  close  a  discussion  by  pronouncing  it 


94     PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS 

academic.  The  advocates  of  the  Puritan  disci- 
pline in  the  times  of  Elizabeth  were  academics 
—  like  Cartwright,  the  Cambridge  vice  - 
chancellor,  and  Travers,  the  preacher  at  the 
Temple ;  so  were  the  Presbyterian  leaders  in 
the  Westminster  Asseml)ly.  Their  scheme  was 
very  complete,  and  it  was  authoritatively  issued, 
but  the  parish  clergy,  with  their  working 
experience,  would  not  have  it. 

II 

The  parish  clergy  were  not  content  with 
disregarding  the  system  ;  within  five  years 
another  system,  essentially  Congregational,  was 
adopted  in  many  parts  of  the  country — adopted, 
too,  where  the  Puritan  tradition  was  strong. 
This  was  Baxter's  scheme  of  Voluntary  Asso- 
ciations, which  he  expounded  with  his  usual 
copiousness  and  clearness.  These  associations 
repudiated  the  right  of  commanding  the  attend- 
ance of  ministers  within  their  bounds ;  they 
made  no  claim  to  authority,  they  exercised 
only  advisory  influence  over  the  particular 
churches. 

This  scheme  is  fully  described  by  Baxter,  its 


PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS    95 

author.  An  extract  from  Adam  Martindale's 
autobiography  will  show  how  it  appeared  to 
an  ordinary  country  parson.^  "  In  Septeml)er 
1653,  at  a  meeting  of  ministers  at  Wilmeslow, 
tlie  14th  day  of  that  month,  a  motion  was 
made,  and  a  letter  drawne  to  invite  many 
other  ministers  to  give  them  the  meeting  at 
Knutsford  on  the  20th  of  October,  being  the 
exercise  day,  as  accordingly  many  did ;  and 
there  they  agreed  upon  a  voluntary  association 
of  themselves  and  their  churches,  if  it  could 
ije  done,  for  mutuall  advice  and  strengthening 
each  other.  Into  this  societie  I  quickly  after 
fell,  and  met  with  much  comfort  and  assist- 
ance ;  but  by  this  meanes  our  worke  was 
encreased  by  meeting  frequently  about  classi- 
call  Ijusinesse,  and  preaching  in  our  turnes  a 
lecture  when  we  so  met. 

"  If  it  be  asked  how  I  got  satisfaction  to  act 
with  them  now,  when  1  had  scrupled  some 
things  concerning  classicall  government  at  the 
time  of  my  being  at  Gorton,  I  answer,  the 
case  was  not  the  same.  Here  was  only  a 
voluntary  association  of  such  as  were  desirous 
to  advise  and    assist  one  another,    nor   did    we 

'    "  Adam  Mai  tindalu's  Diary,  '  Chetliani  iSuciuty,  p.  112. 


96    PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS 

look  upon  ourselves  as  having  any  pastorall 
inspection  over  one  another's  congregations  ; 
l)ut  onely  to  Ijc  helpfull  to  them  in  a  charitable 
way  :  we  pretended  not  to  any  power  to  convent 
any  before  us,  or  suppresse  any  minister  because 
dwelling  in  such  a  place,  within  such  a  verge, 
and  differing  from  us  in  practice." 

Martindale  was  not  a  Congregatioualist ;  he 
was  a  parish  clergyman  of  the  Puritan  type. 
Jle  disliked  the  Separatists  as  cordially  as  did 
Baxter,  and  complains  of  the  intrusion  of  In- 
dependents from  Manchester  when  he  was  at 
Gorton,  and  from  Bowdon  into  his  country 
charge  at  Rostherne.  It  is  the  true  English 
spirit  which  asserts  itself  in  him  ;  the  deter- 
mination to  have  municipal  freedom,  and  a 
dread  of  clerical  courts.  An  Episcopal  system 
is  not  un-English,  neither  is  Congregational 
Independency ;  Presl)yteriaDism  of  the  Conti- 
nental and  Scottish  character  is. 


Ill 

The  struggle  between  a  voluntary  Presby- 
terianism,  adopted  as  a  "  prudential  "  system, 
dependent  on  the  free  consent  of  the  particular 


PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS    97 

Churches,  and  Presbyterianism  claimiDg  the 
jus  divinum,  demanding  to  be  established  ])y 
Parliament  as  an  authoritative  and  uniform 
system  over  every  congregation  in  tlie  land, 
was  in  reality  the  great  conflict  of  the  West- 
minster Assembly.  A  conciliatory  temper  often 
appeared  in  l)otli  parties,  notwithstanding  the 
trust  in  the  Scottish  army  of  the  Presbyterians, 
and  the  dependence  of  the  Independents  on 
Cromwell,  and  their  occasional  alliance  with  the 
Erastian  members  of  the  House  of  Commons. 
The  opposing  parties  had  very  much  in  common  ; 
admiration,  even  affectionate  regard,  sprang  up 
between  them  as  they  came  to  know  eacli 
other  in  debate.  Terms  of  accommodation  were 
more  than  once  suggested,  and  were  proposed 
with  hope.  But  when  the  critical  point  was 
reached — authority  or  free  consent,  uniformity 
or  lil)erty  of  diti'crence  among  the  Churclics — 
the  quarrel  broke  (Jut  afresh  ;  the  conciliatory 
temper  was  lost  in  mutual  exasperation  and  a 
deeper  distrust.  The  same  fundamental  dif- 
ference appears  in  the  histories  of  the  Assembly, 
as  written  l)y  constitutional  Congregationalists 
and  constitutional  Presbyterians  almost  down 
to    the    present    day.       It    is    a    conscientious 

6 


98    PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS 

difference ;  we  have  here  no  battle  between 
"  frogs  and  mice,"  still  less  a  greedy  contest 
between  "kites  and  crows."  It  is  rooted  in 
the  dialectic  habit,  and  represents  the  various 
temperaments,  of  men  equally  honourable, 
equally  religious,  equally  striving  after  abiding 
concord  in  the  faith.  Some  men  are,  by  natural 
constitution,  lovers  of  order  in  the  first  place ; 
they  believe  that  under  good  order  individual 
liberty  is  secure  :  other  men  attach  the  supreme 
importance  to  freedom,  and  trust  that  free  men, 
free  societies,  will  work  out  order.  The  fight  in 
the  Assembly  ended  in  the  triumph  of  unifor- 
mity, but  liberty  has  ultimately  prevailed.  The 
history  of  England  subsequently  has,  however, 
made  it  evident  that  the  strife  will  be  perpetual 
so  long  as  there  is  a  Church  established  by,  and 
acting  with  the  authority  of,  the  State. 

As  part  of  this  struggle  there  arose  that  great 
historic  incident,  which  stirs  in  Englishmen  the 
same  deep,  impassioned  reverence  which  Ameri- 
cans feel  when  any  allusion  is  made  to  the  voy- 
age of  t'he  Mayfloiver — the  plea  for  liberty  of 
conscience  advanced  by  Thomas  Goodwin,  Philip 
Nye,  Jeremiah  Burroughs,  William  Bridge,  and 
Sidrach   Simson.     A  striking  picture  found  in 


PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS    99 

many  a  Congregational  home  has  impressed  this 
plea  for  liberty  of  conscience  in  the  Westminster 
Assembly  on  the  national  memory.     No  single 
incident  occurred  like  that  which  is  here  pour- 
trayed,  but  the  picture  is  true  to  the  spirit  of 
the  Independents  in  the  Assembly.     Historians 
have  pointed  out  that  the  doctrine  of  toleration 
as  advanced  by  these  men,  was  not  the  modern 
doctrine  ;  it  was  much  more  limited,  it  was  not 
based    on    the    universal    right,    the    inevitable 
necessity,  of  liberty  of  thought,  which  is  gene- 
rally accepted  to-day.      Mr.   Hunter  says  that 
Locke    and    Chillingworth,    not    the    five    dis- 
senting brethren,  were  the  fathers  of  toleration. 
Dr.    Hetherington,    a  Presljytcrian  historian  of 
the  Assem})ly,  points  out  that  the  Independents 
did  not  give  unlimited  toleration  when  they  had 
the   power.       And  Dr.  Shaw  dwells  on  the  fact 
that  what  was  pleaded  for  was  not  a  universal 
regard  for  tender  consciences,  but  freedom  for 
their    own    Congregational    action    under    the 
Church  which  was  to  be  established.     All  this 
is    true,    and    1    do    not    know    that    the    five 
brethren  are  to  l)e  censured  for  confining  their 
protest  to  the  matters  under  discussion,  with- 
out encumbering  themselves  with  large  general- 


loo    PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS 

isations,  which  only  an  experience  very  much 
broader  and  more  specific  than  any  which  men 
then  possessed  would  warrant.  It  has  been  a 
weakness,  rather  than  a  strength,  in  modern 
English  Nonconformity,  that  so  many  Non- 
conformists have  invoked,  on  small  occasions, 
great  principles,  the  full  application  of  which 
they  have  not  had  the  opportunity  of  test- 
ing. What  the  five  dissenters  did  was  to 
utter,  to  utter  firmly,  their  own  demand,  and 
refuse  to  be  turned  aside  when  they  were  told 
that  their  action  was  endangering  interests 
which  were  as  sacred  to  them  as  to  their 
opponents.  It  shows  moral  courage  in  an 
educated  man  when  he  does  not  shrink  before 
the  ai^gumentum  ad  invidiam  ;  the  possession 
of  such  courage,  quite  as  much  as  large  vision, 
is  a  qualification  for  pioneering  progressive 
thought. 

Dr.  Hetherinsfton  criticises  the  dissenting 
brethren  severely.  He  writes  thus  :  ^  "  What 
we  have  termed  the  political  Independents  of 
the  army  were  composed  of  sectarians  of  every 

^  "History  of  the  Westminster  Assembly  of  Divines,"  by 
W.  M.  Hetherington,  D.D.,  LL.D.  Ediuburgli  :  James  Gem- 
mell,  1878.     P.  149. 


PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS    loi 

shade  of  opinion  ;  and  from  tlicni,  rather  than 
from  the  religious  Independents  in  the  Assembly, 
arose  the  idea  of  toleration,  of  which  so  much 
use  was  subsequently  made.  As  used  by  those 
military  sectarians,  the  meaning  of  the  term 
was,  that  any  man  might  freely  utter  the 
ravings  of  his  own  heated  fancy,  and  endea- 
vour to  proselytise  others,  be  his  opinions 
what  they  might,  even  though  manifestly  sub- 
versive of  all  morality,  all  government,  and 
all  revelation.  Such  a  toleration,  for  instance, 
as  would  include  alike  Antinomians  and  Ana- 
baptists, though  teaching  that  they  were  set 
free  from  and  above  the  rules  of  moral  duty 
so  completely,  that  to  indulge  in  the  grossest 
licentiousness  was  in  them  no  sin  ;  and  Level- 
lers and  l^^ifth- Monarchy  men,  whose  tenets 
went  directly  to  the  subversion  of  every  kind 
of  constituted  government,  and  all  distinctions 
in  rank  and  property.  This  was  what  tlwy 
meant  ])y  toleration, — and  this  was  what  the 
Puritans  and  Presl)yterians  condemned  and 
wrote  against  with  startled  vehemence.  And 
it  is  neither  to  the  credit  of  the  Independent 
divines  of  that  ))eriod,  nor  of  tliuir  subsequent 
admirers  and  followers,  tliat  they  seem  to  coun- 


I02    PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS 

tenance  such  a  toleration,  the  real  meaning  of 
which  was  civil,  moral,  and  religious  anarchy." 

I   have  no   quarrel  with   this   general  repre- 
sentation   of  the    matter    at    issue,   but    I    say 
that,    instead    of   reflecting    no    credit   on    the 
Independent  divines,   it  is   a    high    tribute   to 
their  courage  and  wisdom  and  composure  that 
when  the  question  of  toleration  was  before  the 
Assembly,   in    such   guise    as    it   here  assumes, 
they  did  not  draw  back  from    their   demand. 
It    means    much    that   they    stood   firm    under 
conditions  in  presence  of  which  Martin   Luther 
quailed.     "Pious,  gentle,  able,  acute,  learned  " 
— these   are   some  of  the  epithets  Dr.  Hether- 
ington  distributes    among    the    group.      They 
knew    the    odium    which    an    association    with 
Antinomians    and    Levellers    would    draw    on 
them ;  they  foresaw  the  grave  questions  which 
would  have  to  be  grappled  with  if  a  beginning 
of  toleration    were   made ;  they  perceived    the 
controversial   advantage   which   they  were  giv- 
ing   to    their    opponents,     and    they    did    not 
flinch.     Dr.    Hetherington    goes    on    to    admit, 
"  It    is,    however,    true    that    out    of    the    dis- 
cussions   which    this  cLdm  of  unbounded   and 
licentious  toleration  raised,  there  was  at  length 


PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS    103 

evolved  the  idea  of  religious  toleration,  such 
as  is  demanded  ])y  man's  solemn  and  dread 
characteristic  of  personal  responsibility,  and 
consecjucnt  inalienable  right  to  liberty  of  con- 
science." 

That  they  deliberately  faced  this  issue  ap- 
pears from  the  following  extract  from  Bail  lie  : 
"  We  hope  shortelie  to  gett  the  Independents 
put  to  it  to  declare  themselves  either  to  be 
for  the  rest  of  the  Sectaries  or  against  them. 
If  they  declare  against  them  they  will  be  but 
a  small  inconsiderable  companie ;  if  for  them 
all  honest  men  will  cry  out  upon  them  for 
separating  from  all  the  Reformed  Churches  to 
joyne  with  Anabaptists  and  Libertines."  They 
made  their  choice  ;  met  a  subtle,  logical  dilemma 
by  a  demand  whose  brevity  is  significant.^  In 
the  end  of  November  1645  "  (Joodwin,  Nye, 
Simson,  Bridge,  and  Burroughs  were  requested 
to  bring  in  their  desires  concerning  Church 
government.  On  the  4tli  of  December  they 
accordingly  presented  such  their  desires  : — 
"  I.  Ordination  to  be  permissibly  performed 
by  sufficiently  qualified  persons  in 
case  there  be  no  presbytery. 

1  Shaw,  vol.  ii.  p.  48. 


104    PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS 

"  2.  Their  congregations  to  be  exempt  from 
Classical,  Provincial,  and  National 
Synods  in  respect  of  jurisdiction." 

"  3.  Liberty  to  form  congregations." 


IV 

The  real  weakness  of  the  Independent  posi- 
tion appeared  later  on,  when,  under  Cromwell's 
Protectorate,  the  Independents  were  instructed 
to  formulate  a  scheme  of  toleration.  Cromwell 
himself  was  a  large-minded  man.  Personally, 
he  was  a  strong  Calvinist  and  a  sincere  Con- 
gregationalist ;  but  as  charged  with  care  for 
the  national  concord,  and  seeing  the  peril  of 
continued  religious  strife,  he  would  have  en- 
couraged ministers  of  conspicuous  piety  with 
very  different  theories  of  Church  government. 
It  was  understood  that  popish  and  prelatic 
clergymen  were  to  be  excluded  ;  this  was  on 
political  grounds.  Exactly  as  Barrowe,  and 
Greenwood,  and  Penry  were  charged  with 
sedition  in  Elizabeth's  days,  and  with  more 
reason,  Roman  Catholics  were  treated  as  seek- 
ing the  political  supremacy  of  the  Pope,  and 
Episcopalians  as  working  for  the  restoration  of 


PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS     105 

the  Stuarts.  The  exclusion  is  inconsistent  with 
a  generous  doctrine  of  liberty  of  conscience ; 
and  the  niistake  seemed  to  justify  the  ruthless 
ejectment  of  the  Puritan  clergy  when  Charles  II. 
came  to  the  throne.  I^ut  we  must  consider  tlie 
national  danger  ;  and  Cromwell's  good  faith  is 
apparent  in  the  fact  that  Episcopalian  ministers, 
who  were  manifestly  devoted  to  their  parishes, 
and  not  preaching  faction,  were  continued  in 
their  cures.  The  forbidding  of  liberty  of  speech 
to  Atheists,  Anti-Trinitarians,  and  others  was 
a  necessary  consequence  of  the  fact  that  the 
scheme  of  toleration  was  proposed  in  continua- 
tion of  legislative  proposals  for  a  scheme  for 
"  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel,"  which  since 
1652-53  had  been,  more  or  less,  before  Par- 
liament. It  was  taken  for  granted  "  that  the 
Christian  religion,  as  contained  in  the  Scrip- 
tures, 1)0  held  forth  and  recommended  as  the 
public  profession  of  tlie  nation  ; "  "  and  the  dis- 
covery and  confutation  of  error,  heresy,  and 
whatever  is  contrary  to  sound  doctrine,"  were 
looked  upon  as  the  concern  of  Parliament 
equally  with  "the  encouragement  and  main- 
tenance of  able  and  [);iiiiful  preachers  for  the 
instructing    of    the    people.'        No    method    of 


io6    PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS 

reconciling  perfect  liberty  for  all  consciences 
with  the  existence  of  a  Church,  established 
and  sustained  by  the  State,  has  even  yet  been 
discovered,  and  in  those  days  it  was  almost 
universally  believed  that,  without  such  a 
national  Church,  there  could  be  no  public 
profession  of  the  Christian  religion.  Nor  had 
men  then  detected  the  fallacy  into  which 
even  Dr.  Hetherington  has  stumbled,  the 
assumption,  namely,  that  because  some  doc- 
trines are  subversive  of  society,  to  tolerate 
their  utterance  is  "  civil,  moral,  and  religious 
anarchy."  It  needed  Milton's  lofty  courage 
and  clarion  words — "  Let  truth  and  falsehood 
grapple ;  who  ever  knew  truth  put  to  the 
worse,  in  a  free  and  open  encounter  ? " — to 
stir  the  conscience  of  the  nation ;  and  Locke's 
clear  reasoning  to  convince  its  judgment  that 
loyalty  to  truth  demands  the  liberty  of  open 
utterance  for  all  opinions  which  men  hold. 

In  a  report  presented  to  a  Parliamentary 
Committee,  i8th  February  1651,  to  which 
twenty  -  seven  names  are  attached  —  among 
them  Nye  and  Simson  and  Bridge,  dissenting 
brethren  of  the  almost  defunct  Assembly,  and 
John  Owen  and  John  Goodwyn,  the  great  Cal- 


PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS    107 

vinistic  and  Aimiuiaii  divines  of  the  Inde- 
pendents— there  are  some  wise  and  weighty 
recommendations.^  "  It  is  desired  that  no 
person  be  required  to  receive  the  Sacrament 
further  than  their  light  shall  lead  them  unto, 
so  no  person  sent  forth  to  preach  and  already 
placed,  or  who  shall  be  placed  in  any  parish 
within  this  nation,  ])e  compelled  to  administer 
the  Sacraments  to  any  but  such  as  he  shall 
approve  of  as  fit  for  the  same."  "  That  whereas 
divers  persons  are  not  satisfied  to  come  to  tlie 
public  places  of  hearing  the  word,  upon  this 
account  that  these  places  are  dedicated  and 
consecrated,  that  the  Parliament  will  be  pleased 
to  declare  that  such  places  are  made  use  of 
and  continued  only  for  the  better  convenience 
of  persons  meeting  together  for  the  public  wor- 
ship of  God,  and  for  no  other  consideration." 
"  That  all  persons  dissenting  to  the  doctrine 
and  way  of  worship  owned  by  the  State,  or 
consenting  thereunto,  and  yet  not  having  the 
advantage  or  opportunity  of  some  of  the  pul)- 
lick  meeting-places,  commonly  called  churches, 
be  rcMjuired  to  meet  (if  they  have  any  constant 
meeting)    in    })laces    publickly    known,    and    to 

'  .Shaw,  vol.  ii.  pj).  82,  83. 


io8    PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS 

give  notice  unto  some  magistrate  of  such  their 
place  of  ordinary  meetings."  A  later  Parliamen- 
tary declaration — the  historic  "  Instrument  of 
Government" — declares  that^  "to  tlie  public 
profession  (of  the  Christian  religion)  held  forth, 
none  shall  be  compelled  by  penalties  or  other- 
wise ;  but  that  endeavours  be  used  to  win  them 
by  sound  doctrine  and  the  "example  of  a  good 
conversation,"  "  That  such  as  profess  faith 
in  God  by  Jesus  Christ  (though  differing  in 
judgment  from  the  doctrine,  worship,  or  dis- 
cipline publicly  held  forth)  shall  not  be  re- 
strained from,  but  shall  be  protected  in,  the 
profession  of  the  faith  and  exercise  of  their 
religion  ;  so  as  they  abuse  not  this  liberty  to 
the  civil  injury  of  others  and  to  the  actual 
disturbance  of  the  public  peace  on  their  parts ; 
provided  this  liberty  be  not  extended  to  Popery 
or  Prelacy,  nor  to  such  as,  under  the  profession 
of  Christ,  hold  forth  and  practise  licentiousness." 
Up  to  this  point  all  went  well ;  but  on  the 
words  "  faith  in  God  by  Jesus  Christ,"  a  dis- 
cussion arose,  the  issue  of  which  was  that  the 
whole  scheme  came  to  nothing.  "  Considering 
that   such    words   contained    the    fundamentals 

'  Shaw,  vol.  ii.  p.  815. 


PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS    109 

of  religious  hclief,  it  was  proposed  that  all  should 
have  a  due  measure  of  liberty  who  professed 
tlie  fundamentals  ;  and  a  Committee  of  Divines 
was  nominated  to  define  them."  At  once  the 
old  dogmatic  spirit  was  aroused,  and  the  Inde- 
pendents, by  their  definitions,  began  a  work 
of  exclusion.  "  I  knew,"  says  Baxter,'  "  how 
ticklish  a  business  the  enumeration  of  Funda- 
mentals was,  and  of  what  very  ill  consequence 
it  would  be  if  it  were  ill  done,  and  how  un- 
satisfactorily that  (juestion,  What  are  your 
Fundamentals  ?  is  usually  answered  to  the 
Papists."  Baxter  wisely  suggested  that  they 
should  "  distinguish  between  the  serine  or  matter 
and  the  words;  and  that  it's  only  the  sense 
that  is  primarily  and  properly  our  Fnnda- 
mentals,  and  the  words  no  further  than  as 
they  are  needful  to  express  that  sense  to  others, 
or  represent  it  to  our  own  conce[)tion."  He 
further  proposed  that  they  should  substitute 
for  the  word  Fundamental  the  word  Essential, 
whicli  proposal  is  not  exactly  an  Irenicon  ; 
but  anotlier  declaration  fi'oni  him  is,  "  that 
quoad  rem  there  is  no  more  Essential  or 
Fundatnental    in'    religion,    Ijut    what    is    con- 

lieliquiir;  JJajicriaiw;.     Loiidun,  1696.      Tp.  197-99. 


I  I  o    PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS 

tained  in  our  Baptismal  Covenant,  /  believe  in 
God  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  and 
give  up  myself  in  covenant  to  Him,  renouncing 
the  Flesh,  the  World,  and  the  Devil."  "  I 
would  have  had  the  Brethren,"  he  further  said, 
"  to  have  offered  the  Parliament  the  Creed, 
Lord's  Prayer,  and  Decalogue  alone  as  our 
Essentials  or  Fundamentals,  which  at  least 
contain  all  that  is  necessary  to  salvation,  and 
hath  been  by  all  the  ancient  Churches  taken 
for  the  sum  of  their  religion.  And  whereas 
they  still  said,  A  Socinian  or  a  Pajnst  ivill 
subscribe  all  this,  I  answered  them.  So  much 
the  better,  and  so  much  the  fitter  it  is  to 
be  the  matter  of  our  concord.  But  if  you 
are  afraid  of  communion  with  Papists  and 
Socinians,  it  must  not  be  avoided  by  making 
a  new  Rule  or  Test  of  Faith  which  they  will 
not  subscribe  to,  or  by  forcing  others  to  sub- 
scribe to  more  than  they  can  do,  but  by  calling 
them  to  account  whenever  in  preaching  or 
writing  they  contradict  or  abuse  the  truth  to 
which  they  have  subscribed."  That  last  sen- 
tence is  very  characteristic  of  Baxter,  who 
wrote  a  hundred  and  sixty -eight  treatises, 
mostly  long  and  always  controversial,  and  whose 


PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS    i  i  i 

perpetual  wonder  was  that  one  so  reasonable  as 
lie  should  have  scarcely  any  to  agree  with  him. 
"  One  merry  passage,"  which  Baxter  tells  us 
"awakened  laughter,"  will  shew  the  elabora- 
tion to  which  the  discussion  lengthened.  "  Mr. 
Sympson  caused  them  to  make  this  a  Funda- 
mental, that  He  that  alloiveth  himself  or  others 
in  any  hnoivn  sin  cannot  he  sared.  I  pleaded 
against  the  word  '  allowed,'  and  told  them  that 
many  a  thousand  lived  in  wilful  sin,  which 
they  could  not  be  said  to  allow  themselves 
in,  but  confessed  it  to  l)e  sin,  and  went  on 
against  conscience,  and  yet  were  impenitent 
and  in  a  state  of  death  ;  and  that  there  seemed 
a  little  contradiction  between  known  sin  and 
allowed ;  so  far  as  a  man  knoweth  that  he 
sinneth,  he  doth  not  alloiv,  that  is,  approve 
it.  Other  exceptions  there  were,  but  they 
would  have  their  way,  and  my  opposition  to 
anything  did  but  heighten  their  resolution. 
At  last  1  told  them,  As  stiff  as  they  were  in 
their  opinion  and  way,  I  would  force  them 
with  one  word  to  change  or  blot  out  all  that 
Fundamental.  I  uigcd  tliem  to  take  my  wager, 
and  they  would  not  believe  me,  but  marvelled 
what  I  meant.      I  told  them   that   the    Parlia- 


I  I  2    PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS 

ment  took  the  Independent  way  of  separation 
to  be  a  sin,  and  when  this  Article  came  before 
them  they  would  say,  By  our  Brethren's  own 
Judgment  we  are  all  damned  Men,  if  we  allow 
the  Independents  or  any  other  Sectaries  in 
their  sin.  They  gave  me  no  answer,  but  they 
left  out  all  that  Fundamental." 

All  this  is  very  noteworthy ;  it  brings  into 
prominence  a  fact  which  must  ])e  borne  in  mind 
if  we  are  to  understand  the  relation  of  Presby- 
terians and  Independents  under  the  Common- 
wealth—  that  the  Independents  were  more 
jealous  for  orthodoxy  than  the  Presbyterians. 
Baxter  speaks  of  "  the  over-orthodox  Doctors, 
Owen  and  Cheynell "  ;  and  attributes  the  failure 
of  their  scheme  of  toleration  to  the  fact  that 
"  they  took  it  to  be  their  Duty  in  all  those 
Fundamentals  to  put  in  those  words  which, 
as  they  said,  did  obviate  the  Heresies  and  Errors 
of  the  Divines."  This  was  the  normal  attitude 
of  the  Independents  from  Browne  and  Barrowe 
down  to  the  first  half  of  tlie  nineteenth  century. 
It  was  not  their  universal  temper ;  there  always 
have  been  men  among  them — like  Peter  Sterry 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  Isaac  Watts  and 
Philip  Doddridge  in  the  eighteenth,  and  a  large 


PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS    i  i  3 

majority  of  them  in  the  nineteeuth — who  did 
not  confound  zeal  for  orthodoxy  with  fidelity 
to  the  truth  ;  but  it  was  something  more  than 
a  general  attitude,  it  was  normal,  sure  on  criti- 
cal occasions  to  appear.  It  was  part  of  their 
Separatism ;  they  loved  the  church  fellowship 
of  like-minded  men,  not  only  for  the  gracious 
discipline  of  morals  it  afforded,  but  equally 
because  it  gave  them  freedom  to  profess  their 
full-orbed  system  of  truth.  It  accounts  for  the 
contrast  between  tfie  tepid  interest  the  Inde- 
pendents of  the  Assembly  took  in  schemes  of 
Accommodation  and  the  heartiness  with  wliich 
they  threw  themselves  into  the  scheme  of 
Toleration.  Accommodation  meant  the  sur- 
render of  testimony  to  some  truths,  secondary, 
indeed,  Imt  very  dear  to  them,  for  the  sake 
of  more  important  interests ;  Toleration  meant 
an  equal  liberty  for  them  all  to  form  assemblies 
in  which  everything  they  held  as  Oliristian 
truth  might  be  freely  uttered.  The  practice 
of  Church  covenanting  which  marked  the  Con- 
gregationalists  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and 
the  frequency  with  which  they  put  out  Confes- 
sions of  Faith,  are  indications  of  the  same  regard 
for  minute  and  systematic  utterances  of  truth. 


u 


114    PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS 


The  extreme  orthodoxy  of  the  Independents 
frustrated,  in  tlie  end  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, what  looked  like  a  very  promising  scheme 
for  uniting  them  with  the  Presbyterians  in  one 
denomination.  For  three-fourths  of  the  cen- 
tury they  were  drawing  nearer  to  each  other 
in  confidence  and  esteem,  though  they  did  not 
always  perceive  it.  In  the  controversies  of  the 
Commonwealth  they  were  learning  to  know 
each  other ;  and  in  the  parishes  non-contro- 
versialists were  working  side  by  side  with 
mutual  respect.  Under  the  Restoration  they 
were  fellow-sufferers  :  the  iniquitous  oppression 
beneath  which  they  groaned  bound  them  in 
tender  sympathy  ;  the  anxieties  which  weighed 
down  the  ministers  and  congregations,  who 
still  came  together  with  difficulty  and  danger, 
abolished  the  distinction  between  them.  They 
joined  together  to  accomplish  the  Revolution 
and  set  William  III.  on  the  throne.  There  is 
in  London  a  "  General  Board  of  the  three 
Denominations  " — Baptist,  Congregational,  and 
Presbyterian  —  which  still  has  the  right  of 
direct    access    to   the    throne    for    the    service 


PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS    i  i  5 

they  rciidered  in  the  polilicul  struggles  which 
finally  established  the  monarchy  of  the  House 
of  Hanover.  When  the  Comprehension  Bill 
was  lost  and  the  Act  of  Toleration  was  passed, 
and  the  Episcopal  Church  was  finally  estab- 
lished as  exclusively  the  National  Church,  the 
only  political  distinction  between  Presbyterians 
and  Independents  was  gone.  Their  congrega- 
tions coalesced ;  their  ministers  were  Con- 
gregational or  Presbyterian,  not  because  of 
any  difi^'erence  in  the  government  of  the 
churches,  but  according  to  the  accidental 
attachment  of  the  people,  in  one  part  of  the 
country  or  another,  to  either  of  the  two 
names.  Trust  -  deeds  were  drawn,  declaring 
lands  and  buildings  to  be  held  for  the  use 
of  conscregatioiis  of  Protestant  Dissenters  of 
the  I'resbyterian  or  Independent  denomination, 
and  to  this  day  it  is  a  moot  point  whether 
the  words  signified  two  denominations,  or  one 
denomination  with  transferable  names.  It  wa 
a  state  of  things  wliicli  would  have  been  in- 
tolerable to  the  Scottish  Presbyterians  of  the 
Assembly  ;  it  was  very  delightful  to  the  chil- 
dren of  the  Puritans,  and  it  seemed  to  promise 
an  entire  union  l)ctween  them. 


ii6    PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS 

A  project  for  such  a  union,  known  under 
the  name  of  "  the  Happy  Agreement,"  or  "  the 
Happy  Union,"  was  ruined  by  the  extreme 
Calvinism — so-called,  Lut  wrongly  so-called — 
of  the  Independents.  A  London  minister 
chose  this  particular  time  for  republishing 
some  writings  of  his  father,  Dr.  Tobias  Crisp, 
in  which  the  doctrine  of  the  Atonement  was 
set  forth  in  a  very  obnoxious  form.  The 
writer  had  been  an  Arminian ;  when  he  be- 
came a  Calvinist  he  rushed  into  an  extreme 
which  it  needs  a  skilful  theologian  to  dis- 
tinguish from  Antinomianism.  He  went  even 
beyond  the  Supralapsarians  in  that  he  taught 
that  a  man  was  justified  before  his  faith, 
viz.,  in  the  eternal  decree  by  which  he  was  or- 
dained unto  eternal  life.  Dr.  Daniel  Williams, 
an  eminent  Presbyterian — a  man  now  known 
for  the  library  he  left  behind  him  containing 
books  and  manuscripts  of  the  greatest  use  in 
Puritan  history,  and  for  the  university  scholar- 
ships he  founded,  but  then  known  for  the 
jrrace  of  his  character  and  his  Puritan  devo- 
tion  —  answered  these  writings.  The  Inde- 
pendents generally  were  not  Antinomian,  but 
they    accused   Dr.    Williams    of   Arminianism, 


PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS    i  i  7 

and  a  fierce  quarrel  arose  between  the  de- 
nominations. Various  attempts  were  made  at 
reconciliation,  which  only  ended  in  greater 
bitterness.  The  controversy  raged  for  some 
years ;  Dr.  Williams,  whose  conduct  in  the 
dispute  was  vindicated  as  wise  and  fair  even 
by  his  opponents,  closed  it  with  a  treatise 
entitled  "  Peace  with  Truth,  or  an  End  to 
Discord."  He  believed  that  he  had  laid  down 
in  this  book  a  declaration  of  principles  which 
would  be  a  sufficient  foundation  for  cordial 
union,  and  expected  that  Ijefore  long  endea- 
vours for  denominational  unity  would  be 
resumed. 

liefore  attempts  at  a  Happy  Agreement  could 
be  begun  again  with  any  hope  of  success,  Uni- 
tarianism  had  become  a  "burning  question" 
in  England.  In  Kxeter,  where  there  were  four 
Presbyterian  churches,  James  Peirce,  one  of  the 
ministers,  adopted  anti  -  Trinitarian  doctrine. 
He  did  not  think  it  necessary  to  preach  it, 
but  he  left  out  of  his  services  all  references 
to  the  three  persons  of  the  Godhead.  A 
brother  minister  finding,  in  conversation  with 
him,  what  Peirce's  sentiments  were,  proclaimed 
his  lapse   horn   orthodoxy  in   Exeter,   and   the 


ii8    PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS 

news  quickly  spread  among  the  people.  They 
requested  the  London  ministers — Presbyterian 
and  Independent — to  advise  them  ;  and  the 
London  ministers  met  to  consider  the  matter 
in  Salters'  Hall.  A  letter  to  Exeter  was  deter- 
mined on ;  but  before  it  was  drafted  Thomas 
Bradbury,  an  able  and  vehement  Independent, 
one  of  the  most  representative  Congregation- 
alists,  proposed  that  every  minister  then  present 
should,  as  a  witness  to  his  own  faith,  subscribe 
the  first  Article  of  the  Established  Church  on 
the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  and  the  answers  to 
the  fifth  and  sixth  questions  in  the  Catechism 
of  the  Westminster  Assembly.  This  motion  was 
opposed  mainly  on  the  ground  that  it  was  an 
imposition  of  a  human  creed,  and  that  to  en- 
force such  a  creed  was  inconsistent  with  the 
principles  of  Protestant  Dissent.  It  was  re- 
jected by  seventy-three  to  sixty-nine  votes,  on 
which  the  minority,  mainly  Congregationalists, 
left  the  conference  and  formed  themselves 
into  a  separate  Assembly.  The  non-subscrib- 
ing Assembly  had  some  Congregationalist  and 
Baptist  members,  but  its  majority  was  Pres- 
byterian. 

The  immediate  result  of  all  this  was,  on  the 


PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS    119 

Presbyterian  side,  an  added  impulse  to  Uni- 
tarianism  ;  it  made  the  Cpngregational  churches 
look  to  detailed  doctrinal  creeds  for  that  defence 
of  truth  which  the  more  consistent  Congre- 
gationalists  now  believe  the  spiritual  fellowship 
sufficient  to  secure.  Nearly  all  the  evangelical 
Presbyterians  gradually  became  Independents ; 
they  had  always  been  Congregational  in  prac- 
tice, now  they  assumed  the  Congregational 
name.  The  possession  of  property,  chapels, 
manses,  endowments,  was  determined  in  this 
way — where  tlie  orthodox  members  seceded,  the 
Unitarians  held  the  trusts ;  where  the  Uni- 
tarians seceded,  the  Cono;re2;ationalists  held 
them.  By-and-by  litigation  arose,  and  an 
Act  of  Parliament  was  passed  ordering  that, 
where  no  specific  doctrines  had  been  laid  down 
in  the  trust-deed,  the  property  was  secured  to 
those  who  had  held  it  for  a  term  of  not  less 
than  twenty-five  years.  The  latest  decision  of 
the  courts,  in  1897,  is  of  historical  as  well  as  legal 
interest.  The  Defoe  Memorial  Cliurch,  in  Toot- 
ing, received  its  name  V)ecause  Daniel  Defoe  had 
been  at  one  time  associated  with  the  congrega- 
tion. The  original  deed  settling  property  on 
the  conii;ref!;ation  declared  it  to  ])e  for  the  use  of 


I20    PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS 

*'  Protestant  Dissenters  of  the  Presbyterian  or 
Independent  denomination."  For  more  than  a 
hundred  years  the  church  had  been  Congre- 
gational, with  a  succession  of  Congregational 
ministers.  For  the  greater  part  of  that  time 
the  only  Presbyterian  church  claiming  to  be 
English  was  Unitarian,  and  the  Tooting  congre- 
gation was  never  other  than  Evangelical.  In 
1876  "the  Presbyterian  Church  of  England" 
was  formed,  mainly  consisting  of  congregations 
associated  with  the  United  Presbyterian  and  the 
Free  Churches  of  Scotland.  With  this  newly- 
formed  church  the  pastor  of  the  Defoe  Memorial 
Church  and  a  portion  of  the  members  de- 
termined to  unite  themselves,  "  believing,"  as 
they  said  in  a  resolution  passed  on  the  loth 
December  1879,  "that  the  doctrine  and 
polity  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  England 
are  in  harmony  with  the  word  of  God,  and 
knowing  that  the  real  and  personal  property 
connected  with  the  church  at  Tootino;  are  of 
Presbyterian  origin."  The  London  Congrega- 
tional Union  contested  their  right  to  do  this 
and  continue  to  hold  the  property,  and  the 
case  was  decided  against  the  pastor  and  his 
Presbyterian    adherents.      The    pleadings   pre- 


PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS    121 

pared  on  both  sides  were  very  elaborate  ;  but 
the  ground  of  the  decision  was  severely  simple. 
The  trust-deed  provided  that  the  premises  were 
for  the  use  of  Protestant  Dissenters  of  the 
Presbyterian  or  Independent  denomination  to 
worship  in ;  but  the  "  Book  of  Order  and 
Discipline  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of 
England  "  made  that  impossible.  "  The  rules  in 
that  book,"  Mr.  Justice  Kekewich  said,  "  conflict 
at  every  turn  with  what  I  understand  to  be  the 
essential  character  of  the  Independent  denomi- 
nation, namely,  that  each  particular  church 
stands  alone,  independent  of  every  other  church, 
in  harmony  with  them,  perhaps,  but  still  in- 
dependent, self-contained,  self-governed.  The 
Book  of  Order  is  directly  contrary  to  that 
position."  If  the  modern  Presbyterianism  had 
allowed  the  freedom  which  the  English  Presby- 
terians enjoyed,  the  question  would  have  had  to 
be  fought  out  more  specifically,  and  it  is  by  no 
means  certain  that  the  Con2[reo;ationalists  would 
have  won  their  case.  But  the  rigour  of  the 
Scottish  method  was  decisive.  The  minister 
was  not  dismissed,  but  he  was  strictly  charged  that 
he  was  not  at  liberty  to  continue  in  his  place  as 
a  member  of  the  South  London  l^resbytery. 


122    PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS 

We  have  two  Presbyterian  churches  in 
England  to-day — this  modern  "  Presbyterian 
Church  of  England,"  which  is  orthodox,  and  the 
old  "  English  Presbyterian  Church,"  which  is  Uni- 
tarian. Its  ministers  do  not  use,  by  choice,  the 
title  Unitarian  churches ;  they  prefer  to  call 
themselves  Free  or  Non-subscribing  churches  ; 
but  many  of  them  cling  to  the  old  historic  title. 
Here  is  the  reason  that  while  in  America  the 
Unitarians  regard  with  affection  the  historic 
name  Congregational,  their  English  brethren  love 
the  name  Presbyterian.  The  Puritan  tradition  is 
very  dear  to  them  :  they  look  with  reverence  to 
Richard  l^axter  and  Daniel  Williams,  orthodox 
though  these  were ;  they  regard  the  non- 
subscribino;  members  of  the  Salters'  Hall  con- 
ference  as  their  ecclesiastical  ancestors. 

I  have  been  putting  off,  all  through  this 
Lecture,  the  consideration  of  the  relation  be- 
tween the  Independents  of  the  seventeenth  and 
the  Separatists  of  the  sixteenth  century.  With 
a  word  or  two  on  this  point  I  close. 

The  Independents  were  not  enamoured  of  the 
name  Separatist  or  Brownist,  and  that  not 
simply  because  it  was  an  offensive  title,  carry- 


PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS    123 

ing  a  stigma  with  it.  They  were  not  true 
Separatists ;  had  they  been  so,  they  would  not 
have  sat  in  the  Westminster  Assembly,  nor 
entered  into  Cromwell's  purpose  of  founding  a 
comprehensive  National  Church.  But  Baillie 
and  Baxter,  and  the  Presbyterians  generally, 
were  not  wrong  in  calling  them  so.  All  they 
knew  of  Congregational  Independency,  gathered 
Churches,  discipline,  the  association  of  the 
members  with  the  ministers  in  church  govern- 
ment, the  desire  for  toleration,  had  been  formu- 
lated for  them  by  Browne,  and  Barrowe,  and 
John  Robinson,  and  Henry  Jacob,  and  Henry 
Ainsworth.  The  Separatist  doctrine  was  as  the 
leaven,  the  Independents  w^rc  the  three 
measures  of  meal,  which  in  its  turn  became 
leaven,  leavening  the  wdiole  lump  of  English 
church  life.  I  never  study  this  history,  never 
mark  how  the  habit  of  gathering  for  worship 
outside  the  Established  Churches,  and  the 
exercise  of  care  over  one  another  by  the 
members  in  these  separate  assemblies,  grew  into 
the  practice  of  discipline,  and  then  into  an 
assertion  of  the  doctrine  of  purity  of  com- 
munion ;  how  the  people  took  into  their  hands 
the  exercise  of  government,  and  found  tliat  they 


124    PRESBYTERIANS  AND  INDEPENDENTS 

were  following  St.  Paul's  model  in  the  congre- 
gations of  the  Greek  municipalities  in  Asia 
Minor  and  Achaia  ;  how  the  habit  of  depending 
on  the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit  led  to  an 
assertion  of  the  operative  headship  of  Christ  in 
the  churches,  which  made  the  thought  of  civil  or 
ecclesiastical  dominion  over  them  intolerable — 
without  recalling  some  striking  words  of  Mr. 
Gladstone,  when  he  speaks  of  the  relation  of 
the  evangelical  revival  in  the  eighteenth  century 
to  the  Tractarian  movement  of  the  ninteenth. 
"  Logical  continuity  and  moral  causation  are 
stronger  than  the  conscious  thought  of  man ; 
they  mock  it,  and  play  with  it,  and  constrain 
it,  even  without  its  knowledge,  to  suit  their 
purpose." 


LECTURE  IV 

REACTIONS    AND    REVIVAL 


Tlie  Act  of  Toleration — Its  Defects — Its  Adaptation  to 
the  Times — Nonconforming  Pieacliers  in  Parish  Churches 
— The  Power  of  the  Patron — Private  Chajjels  and  Chap- 
lains— Charles  II. 's  Indulgence— Dissenters  Excluded  from 
Public  Life— Colleges  and  Grammar  Schools  Closed  to  Dis- 
senters— Dissenting  Academies — Tlie  Corporation  and  the 
Test  Acts — Occasional  Conformity — Profanation  of  Holy- 
Communion — Nonconformists  and  the  Shrievalty  of  Lon- 
don— Lord  Mansfield  on  Religious  Persecution — Develop- 
ment of  Separatism  under  this  Policy — Baxter  on  the 
"Lazy"  Separatists — Wesley's  Censure  of  Independent 
Ministers — Dissenting  Churches  in  the  Eighteenth  Century 
— Isaac  Watts — Philip  Doddridge — The  Disabling  Influ- 
ence of  Smallness — Watts's  Patriotism — "  A  Garden  Walled 
Around  " — Indifference  to  the  Spiritual  Needs  of  England 
a  Characteristic  of  the  Eighteenth  Century — Decay  of  In- 
terest in  Religion— The  Evangelical  Revival — Methodism 
and  Puritanism — Calvini.stic  and  Arminian  Methodists — 
Tlieir  Church  Doctrine — Drift  toward  Congregationalism— 
Inlluence  of  Methodism  on  English  Religion. 


T.IX  riiiiK  IV 

REACTIONS   AND   REVIVAL 

Thi-;  Act  of  Toleration  was  the  only  solution 
of  the  religious  difficulty  in  England  which 
the  times  and  the  tempers  of  men  permitted. 
It  was  not  an  ideal  Act;  it  was  founded  upon 
that  principle  of  compromise,  so  dear  to  the 
average  Englishman  and  so  ofi'ensive  to  the 
dogmatist.  It  was  niggardly  in  its  conces- 
sions, and  created  new  difficulties.  It  divided  the 
religious  part  of  the  nation  into  two  classes — 
the  ])rivileged  and  the  tolerated — and  this 
division  became  a  line  of  cleavage  which  has 
penetrated  througli  every  stratum  of  the  social 
life.  It  hindered  for  more  than  a  century  the 
establishment  of  a  national  system  of  education  ; 
the  coniiict  between  two  sections  of  educationists 
— those  who  want  a  national  and  those  who 
want  a  denominational  system — is  one  of  the 
"burning  (jucstions"  of  to-day.  Aiul  yet  our 
children,    who    will    read   the   liistory  more  dis- 


128  REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL 

passionately  than  we  can,  may  affirm  it  to  have 
been,  in  its  result,  both  beneficent  and  wise. 
It  gave  a  temporary  peace  if  it  did  not  secure 
a  lasting  concord.  Certainly  it  was  better  than 
any  Act  of  Comprehension  would  have  been. 
No  Act  of  Comprehension  could  have  efifaced 
dissent.  The  thoroughgoing  Independents,  and 
the  Baptists,  would  still  have  been  outside 
the  National  Church.  But  we  should  have  had 
a  small  dissent,  unfit  for  grappling  with  problems 
as  they  arose,  and  powerless  to  influence  states- 
men. The  Toleration  Act  made  the  Dissenters 
a  large  and  strong  body ;  much  of  the  learning, 
the  piety,  the  social  influence  of  the  land  was 
with  them.  •  If  the  Episcopalians  were  secured 
in  their  supremacy,  the  Nonconformists  had  the 
liberty  to  preach,  and  to  order  their  churches 
according  to  what  they  believed  to  be  "  the 
mind  of  Christ."  This  was  all  that  Browne, 
and  Barrowe,  and  John  Robinson— the  early 
Separatists — asked  for.  It  was  what  Milton 
regarded  as  the  highest  earthly  boon.  "  Give 
me  the  liberty  to  know,  to  utter,  and  to  argue 
freely  according  to  conscience,  above  all  liber- 
ties." I  am  not  at  all  sure  that  a  much  larger 
measure  of  liberty  would  have  been  a  boon  even 


REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL  129 

to  the  Independents.  Freedom  for  thought 
cannot  be  won  by  a  coiqj  de  main,  nor  con- 
ferred by  an  Act  of  Parliament.  It  has  subtler 
enemies  than  legislation  can  put  down — preju- 
dice, narrowness,  want  of  consideration  for 
others — and  the  discipline  of  the  yoke  is  a 
surer  solvent  of  these  than  social  advantajres 
and  easy  times. 

I 

The  toleration  of  Dissenters  was  accordinir  to 
the  mind  of  the  nation.  The  Act  of  Uniformity 
itself  had  not  been  able  to  silence  Presbyterian 
and  Independent  ministers,  and  suppress  Con- 
gregational church  discipline.  Dr.  Plalley  has 
told  us  how  "  several  nonconforming  ministers 
in  Lancashire  contrived  in  one  way  or  another 
to  retain  their  places  without  complying  with 
the  requirements  of  the  Act.  This  could  be 
done  only  where  the  minister  was  so  much 
respected  that  no  one  would  lay  an  information 
against  him,  where  the  patron  of  the  living  had 
no  desire  to  present  another  incumbent,  and 
generally  where  the  stipend  was  so  small  as  to 

excite    no    desire    in    any    other   clergyman    to 

I 


130  REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL 

appeal    to   authority    to    have    the   church    de- 
clared vacant."^ 

He  enumerates  thirteen  chapelrics  in  Lanca- 
shire where  the  incumbency  was  not  disturbed 
by  the  refusal  of  the  clergyman  to  conform, 
and  says  that  similar  instances  of  nonconform- 
ing ministers  retaining  their  benefices  or  being 
allowed  to  preach  in  their  churches  as  lecturers, 
may  be  found  in  the  adjoining  counties  of  York 
and  Chester.  A  chapel  at  Morley  in  Yorkshire 
continues  to  be  occupied  by  Congregationalists, 
and  a  Unitarian  conofreo;ation  still  holds  "  the 
ancient  chapel  of  Toxtcth  Park,"  a  suburb  of 
Liverpool. 

A  state  of  things  like  this  requires  a  word 
or  two  of  explanation.  It  is  partly  accounted 
for  by  the  national  character.  The  well- 
regulated  English  mind  finds  a  charm  in  in- 
consistency, equal  to  that  which  order  brings 
to  more  servile  spirits.  We  do  not  cut  ofl' 
the  ravelled  edges  of  our  fabrics,  we  twist 
them  into  fringes,  and  account  them  pictur- 
esque.      The   Englishman    is    not    a   rationally 

1  "  Lancashire  ;  its  Purilanism  and  Nonconformity,"  by 
Robert  Halley,  D.D.  London:  Hodder  &  Stoughton,  1869. 
VoL  ii.  p.  146. 


REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL  131 

tolerant  man,  Itut  lie  is  easy-going.  He  is 
lial)le  to  fierce  bursts  of  popular  passion,  and 
the  passion  while  it  lasts  is  ruthless ;  but  it 
soon  subsides.      He 

"Carries  anger  as  the  Hint  bears  fire  : 
Who,  mucli  enforced,  shews  a  hasty  spark, 
And  straight  is  cold  again." 

The  power  of  the  patron  of  the  living,  a 
remnant  of  feudalism,  accounts  for  more.  The 
lord  of  the  manor  had  perhaps  built  the  chapel ; 
he  was  responsible  for  much  of  the  cost  of 
maintaining  the  building,  the  parish  clergyman, 
and  the  public  worship.  He  had  presented  the 
incumbent ;  it  would  have  lain  with  him  to 
appoint  a  successor.  There  are  instances 
where,  through  the  favour  of  the  patron, 
under  Elizabeth's  or  Charles's  Act  of  Unifor- 
mity, a  Congregational  Church  was  formed 
within  the  parish,  ministered  to  sometimes  by 
the  parish  clergyman,  sometimes  by  a  lecturer 
acting  with  his  concurrence.  Other  members 
of  the  aristocracy  had  private  chapels  and 
private  chaplains ;  they  claimed  the  right, 
both  of  disregarding  the  Act  of  Uniformity  in 
their  own  households,  and  of  inviting  as  many 


132  REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL 

neighbours  as  they  pleased  to  their  family 
worship.  All  the  people  of  a  parish  might 
thus  have  been  Congregationalists  within  the 
Established  Church.  Greenwood,  the  martyr, 
had  been  Puritan  chaplain  to  Lord  Rich  in 
Essex,  and  had  been  allowed  by  the  parish 
clergyman  to  minister  to  a  gathered  Church 
at  Rochford  Hall,  until  his  conscience  drove 
him  to  London,  where  he  avowed  himself  a 
Separatist.  In  the  times  of  the  Evangelical 
Revival,  the  Calvinistic  section  had  some 
aristocratic  leaders  who  unintentionally  fostered 
dissent  in  this  way.  The  Countess  of  Hunting- 
don built  chapels,  and  appointed  her  chaplains 
to  be  ministers  of  them  without  the  consent 
of  the  parish  clergyman,  and  she  was  very 
indignant  when  a  legal  judgment  was  given 
that  she  could  only  do  so  under  the  Toleration 
Act,  and  must  register  the  buildings  as  dissent- 
ing chapels. 

We  have  to  consider,  also,  the  tolerant  temper 
of  some  of  the  bishops.  Bishop  Wilkins  of 
Chester,  the  diocese  of  which  Dr.  Ilalley  is 
writing,  definitely  allowed  this  independent 
action  of  ministers  in  a  few  cases.  One 
reason    why   the   English   people    prefer   Epis- 


REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL  133 

copacy  to  Presbyterian  ism  is,  that  they  believe 
a  bishop  acting  on  his  own  responsibility 
more  likely  to  be  liberal  than  a  Synod  or  a 
Presbytery. 

The  Court  party,  moreover,  was  not  consis- 
tent in  the  policy  of  persecution.  Charles  II., 
desiring  to  propitiate  both  Romanists  and 
Nonconformists,  put  out,  without  consulting 
Parliament,  a  Declaration  of  Induloence,  wliich 
practically  repealed  the  Act  of  Uniformity.  A 
similar  Act,  in  1687,  cost  James  II.  his  crown; 
and  there  were  many  Dissenters  who,  resenting 
Charles's  invasion  of  the  prerogative  of  Parlia- 
ment, refused  to  be  indulged.  His  later  de- 
claration, which  w^as  issued  under  Parliamentary 
sanction,  was  generally  accepted ;  an<l  it  con- 
tinued in  operation  until  the  Toleration  Act 
was  passed. 

The  strength  of  the  Toleration  Act  was,  that 
it  gave  legal  recognition  to  a  custom  which  it 
had  been  found  impossible  to  repress ;  its  great 
defect  was,  that  under  its  operation  the 
Dissenters  found  themselves  excluded  from 
public  life.  The  exemption  of  Dissenters  from 
"the  penalties  of  certain  laws"  did  not  repeal 
the  laws  themselves.     I'here  were  Tory  states- 


134  REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL 

men  who  avowed  that  the  Toleration  Act  was 
only  temporary,  and  the  fear  that  it  might  be 
so  is  evidenced  by  a  clause  which,  during  the 
whole  of  the  eighteenth  century,  continued  to 
be  inserted  in  the  trust-deeds  of  Nonconformist 
meeting-houses,  directing  to  what  uses  the  pro- 
perty should  be  applied  should  the  Toleration 
Act  be  repealed. 

The  disability  imposed  by  the  Act  of  Uni- 
formity began  with  the  children.  England  had 
in  her  colleges  and  grammar-schools  a  generous, 
and  for  the  time  a  sufficient,  provision  for  the 
scholarly  education  of  her  people.  In  these 
had  been  trained  the  great  majority  of  the 
clergy,  of  doctors  also  and  lawyers,  as  well  as 
the  sons  of  the  gentry,  and  many  farmers' 
and  tradesmen's  sons.  The  Act  of  Uniformity 
demanded  subscription  to  the  Articles  and 
Liturgy  of  the  Church  from  all  Heads  and 
Fellows  and  Tutors  of  Colleges,  from  Univer- 
sity Professors  and  Readers,  and  masters  of 
public  schools.  There  were  no  old-world  con- 
ditions to  mitigate  the  pressure  of  this  law. 
The  schools  had  not  patrons  who  could  have 
seen  to  it  that  the  children  of  Nonconformists 


REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL  135 

were  not  trained  up  in  the  practice  of  the 
Established  Church  ;  there  was  no  one  in  the 
universities  to  protest  against  the  requirement 
of  subscription  to  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  when 
students  entered  college  and  went  on  to  their 
dejrrees.  Under  the  Toleration  Act  the  Dissen- 
ters  founded  academies  of  their  own,  which  at 
first  cfave  a  liberal  education  to  all  lads  seekino; 
it,  and  l)y-and-by  became  seminaries  for  the 
training^  of  their  ministers.  But  these  were  not 
like  the  old  places  of  learning.  The  culture 
was  generous,  and  it  made  scholars,  but  the 
atmosphere  was  sectarian.  It  was  as  Protestant 
Dissenters  the  young  men  were  taught,  and  for 
the  service  of  their  own  churches,  not  as 
Englishmen,  fired  with  an  ambition  to  take  part 
in  public  life. 

The  Corporation  Act,  passed  in  1661,  imposed 
conformity  on  all  town  councillors,  mayors, 
aldcrnicn,  and  slicrilfs,  and  so  excluded  Dissen- 
ters from  municipal  otlice.  Municipal  office  is 
the  training-school  of  pul)lic-spirited  men  :  if 
it  had  been  intended  to  dwarf  the  aspirations 
and  limit  the  outlook  of  a  whole  section  of 
English  manhood,  to  make  them  narrow  sec- 
tarians,    to    confine    public    service    to    other 


136  REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL 

sectarians  in  whom  the  sense  of  privilege 
should  work  an  equal  narrowness  of  vision, 
no  surer  method  could  have  been  devised. 
The  Test  Act,  passed  in  1673,  made  the  same 
demand  of  conformity  on  all  persons  holding 
office  and  emolument  from  the  Crown,  on 
Ministers  of  State,  on  custom-house  servants 
and  excisemen,  great  and  small  alike.  This 
Act,  too,  kept  the  sense  of  injustice  constant 
in  the  minds  of  some  of  the  most  devoted 
friends  of  the  Commonwealth,  and  injured  the 
community  by  the  loss  of  their  service. 

The  Act  of  Uniformity,  the  Corporation  Act, 
and  the  Test  Act  continued  in  force  when  the 
Act  of  Toleration  was  passed,  and  gave  occasion 
to  some  of  the  bitterest  political  conflicts  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  The  Whigs  were  sincerely 
attached  to  toleration,  and  would  have  silently 
sanctioned  any  evasion  of  the  restrictive  laws  to 
which  Nonconformists  might  resort ;  but  the 
Tories  were  always  for  making  them  stricter, 
and  for  stamping  out  dissent  entirely.  John 
Robinson  had  written  in  favour  of  the  occasional 
joining  of  Separatists  in  the  worship  of  the 
parish  churches,  although  he  frankly  confessed 
that  he  himself  could  not  practise  it.     Occasional 


REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL  137 

conformity  was  gradually  becoming  a  habit 
among  Dissenters  of  wealth  and  social  position, 
of  Presbyterian  nurture  mostly,  and  it  provoked 
the  hostility  of  the  Church  and  State  party,  who 
brought  Bills  before  Parliament  to  make  it 
illegal.  Strong  Dissenters,  like  Defoe  and 
Thomas  Bradbury,  and  the  Independents  gene- 
rally, were  equally  vehement  in  their  oppositioii 
to  the  practice,  because  it  was  inconsistent  with 
the  integrity  of  conscience  and  threatened  the 
absorption  of  Dissenters  into  the  Established 
Church.  The  discussions  of  the  leaders  were 
punctuated  by  furious  riots  of  the  mob,  who 
loved  agitation  better  than  they  understood  the 
points  at  issue,  and  greeted  with  similar 
acclamations  Sacheverell  on  his  return  from 
condemnation  by  the  House  of  Lords,  and 
Defoe  when  he  was  standing  in  the  pillory.  An 
Act  intended  to  put  an  end  to  occasional  con- 
formity was  passed  in  171 1  ;  the  Schism  Bill, 
preventing  any  but  members  of  the  Established 
Church  from  being  teachers,  became  law  in 
1 7 14.  It  seemed  as  if  the  persecutions  of 
Elizabeth  and  Charles  11.  were  to  be  renewed, 
all  the  old  bitterness  was  reawakening ;  Thomas 
Bradbury    wondered — so    he    said    to    Bishop 


138  REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL 

Burnet,  when  walkino;  throuQ-h  Smitlifield — if 
he  should  have  the  constancy  and  resolution  of 
the  old  martyrs  ;  and  then  the  death  of  Queen 
Anne  startled  the  nation.  The  whole  political 
prospect  was  changed  ;  England  was  delivered 
from  the  fear  of  a  Stuart  dynasty  and  a  perse- 
cuting Church. 

The  Test  and  Corporation  Acts  were  not 
rendered  innoxious  because  there  was  now  no 
danger  of  their  extension.  Thoughtful  persons 
were  shocked  by  the  impiety  which  they  en- 
couraged. The  profession  of  the  State  religion 
was  made  by  taking  the  Sacrament  within  three 
months  of  appointment  to  office,  and  as  part  of 
the  qualification.  How  this  degraded  the  con- 
ception of  the  Lord's  Supper,  to  what  scenes  it 
gave  occasion,  when  crowds  of  successful  candi- 
dates hung  about  the  churches  to  qualify,  and 
then  went  to  the  ale-house  to  drink  themselves 
in,  may  well  be  imagined.  "  His  Royal  Highness 
Prince  Frederick  " — so  might  say  a  paragraph 
in  the  London  Gazette — "  yesterday  received 
the  Sacrament,  having  been  appointed  Ranger 
of  Windsor  Park."  There  were  advertisements 
of  days  when  the  Sacrament  would  be  adminis- 
tered  to    persons  recently  admitted   to   public 


REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL  139 

posts.  To  this  custom  C^owpcr  alludes  in  his 
satire  on  the  ungodliness  and  hypocrisy  of 
England. 


o 


'■  ITast  tliou  by  statute  slioved  from  its  design 
'I'lie  Saviour's  feast,  liis  own  blest  bread  and  wine, 
And  made  the  symbols  of  redeeming  grace 
An  office-key,  a  picklock  to  a  place, 
That  infidels  may  prove  their  title  good 
Ijy  an  oath  dipped  in  sacramental  blood  1 
A  blot  that  will  be  still  a  blot,  in  spite 
Of  all  that  grave  apologists  may  write  ; 
And  though  a  ])ishop  toil  to  cleanse  the  stain. 
He  wipes  and  scours  tlie  silver  cup  in  vain." 

In  one  historical  instance  the  perversion  of 
the  Corporation  Act  to  miserable  party  purpose 
at  length  provoked  an  appeal  to  the  courts  of 
law.  The  London  City  Council  being  in  want 
of  money — they  were  Ijuilding  the  Mansion 
House,  the  official  residence  of  the  Lord  Mayor 
— for  many  years  chose  Nonconformist  citizens 
to  be  sheriffs.  A  person  refusing  to  act  as 
sheriff  is  liable  to  a  fine.  In  1742  a  citizen 
declined  to  qualify  for  the  office  l)y  taking  the 
Sacrament,  and  was  cited  by  tlie  CoriJoration 
befort'  the  Court  oF  Queen's  Bench.  The  Couit 
decided  in  thf  citiztni's  favour,  wliereupoii  the 
Corporation  in   i74«S  passed  a  by-law  ini[)osing  a 


I40  REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL 

penalty  of  four  liuudred  pounds  on  any  person 
who  should  not  accept  the  Lord  Mayor's  nomi- 
nation, and  of  six  hundred  pounds  if,  after 
election  by  the  citizens,  he  should  refuse  to 
serve.  In  six  years  the  fines  had  swelled  up  to 
fifteen  thousand  pounds,  and  then  resistance 
was  determined  upon.  Three  Dissenters  were  in 
one  year  successively  elected,  and  as  they  would 
not  pay  the  fines,  the  Corporation  proceeded 
against  them  in  the  Sheriff's  Court.  Judgment 
was  given  in  favour  of  the  Corporation,  and  the 
defendants  appealed  to  another  local  Court, 
presided  over  by  the  Recorder  of  London,  who 
dismissed  the  appeal.  The  case  was  carried 
before  a  special  commission  of  five  judges,  who, 
by  a  majority  of  four  to  one,  reversed  the 
decisions  of  the  Courts  below.  The  Corporation 
finally  appealed  to  the  House  of  Lords,  and  six 
judges  out  of  seven  gave  judgment  in  favour  of 
the  sole  remaining  defendant.  Lord  Mansfield, 
the  Chancellor,  was  scathing  in  his  censure  of 
tlie  Corporation,  whom  he  declared  to  be  not  so 
much  desirous  of  the  Dissenters'  services  as  of 
their  fines.  His  summing  up  contained  a  de- 
fence of  liberty  of  conscience.  "  There  is  no 
usage    or    custom,"    he    said,   "  independent   of 


REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL  141 

jjositive  law,  which  makes  nonconformity  a 
crime.  .  .  .  There  never  was  a  single  instance, 
from  the  Saxon  times  clown  to  our  own,  in 
which  a  man  was  ever  punislied  for  erroneous 
opinions  concerning  rites  or  modes  of  worship, 
but  upon  some  positive  law.  The  common  law 
of  England,  which  is  only  common  reason  or 
usage,  knows  of  no  prosecution  for  mere 
opinions.  .  .  .  There  is  nothing  certainly  more 
unreasonable,  more  iniquitous,  more  inconsistent 
with  the  rights  of  human  nature,  more  contrary 
to  the  spirit  and  precepts  of  the  Christian 
religion,  more  iniquitous  and  unjust,  more  im- 
politic, than  persecution.  It  is  against  natural 
religion,  revealed  religion,  and  sound  policy." 
The  judgment  gave  heart  to  the  Dissenters;  it 
aroused  them  to  make  still  further  eiibrts  to 
resist  encroachments  on  their  freedom  which 
were  not  sanctioned  by  express  statute. 

Lord  Mansfield's  distinction  between  common 
law  and  positive  law  is  valuable,  but  statutes 
of  tlie  realm  help  to  form  public  opinion. 
Fighting  men,  like  the  ]3isscnting  deputies 
of  liOndon,  who  organised  the  resistance  to 
the  Corporation,  may  be  alert  to  see  that  only 
such  disabilities  as  are  definitely   enacted    arc 


142  KEACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL 

enforced  upon  them.  So  long,  however,  as 
the  Test  and  Corporation  Acts  were  unre- 
pealed, the  members  of  the  Church  of  England 
were  encouraged  in  the  belief  that  Dissenters 
had  fewer  natural  rights  than  other  people ; 
and  many  of  themselves,  quiet,  timid  men, 
acquiesced  in  the  presumption. 

II 

The  conditions  I  have  been  describing,  opera- 
tive for  a  hundred  and  fifty  years,  developed 
the  Separatist  habit  in  English  Nonconformity, 
and  made  the  Dissenter  the  man  he  was,  in 
his  good  qualities  and  in  his  defects,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Both 
the  Puritan  and  the  Separatist  were  strenuous 
men.  But  the  strenuousness  was  of  two  diffe- 
rent types.  The  Puritan  was  enthusiastic,  ex- 
pansive, thinking  first  of  England  and  the 
National  Church ;  the  Separatist  was  intense, 
individualistic,  aiming  at  the  purity  of  the 
[)articular  Churches  in  their  actual  member- 
ship. The  difference  is  like  that  between 
spade  culture  and  the  use  of  the  plough.  The 
one  produces  a  heavier  and  a  richer  crop   per 


REACTIONS  AND  RP]V1VAL  143 

square  yard,  but  it  demands  small  fields,  nar- 
rowly hedged  in.  The  other  loves  large 
reaches  of  land,  lying  open  to  sun  and  air, 
but  the  crops  are  not  so  varied,  the  indi- 
vidual fruits  not  so  full,  nor  so  finely  sent 
to  market.  The  decay  of  Presbyterianism 
meant  the  gradual  death  of  the  larger  ambi- 
tions ;  the  Churches,  instead  of  the  Church, 
became  the  supreme  object  of  the  care  of 
all  Dissenters.  Separatism  was  not  regarded 
with  affection  by  more  than  a  small  minority 
of  the  English  people  until  the  eighteenth 
century ;  thoughtful  men  in  the  Church  of 
England  must  sometimes  reflect,  a  little  sorrow- 
fully, that  but  for  the  Act  of  Uniformity  the 
Separatists  might  have  died  out  like  the  Non- 
jurors. But  the  hand  of  Cod  was  in  the 
history  ;  the  English  ecclesiastical  problem 
could  not  be  solved  until  this  idea  of  the 
Church  had  had  full  opportunity  to  prove 
itself  and  its  worth,  to  shew  what  it  could 
do,  and  wherein,  if  standing  alone,  it  was 
doomed   to   fail. 

Richard  Jjaxter,  an  unsparing  critic  of  the 
Independents,  frequently  comments  on  what 
seemed  to  him  the  exclusive  care  of  their  own 


144  REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL 

members  and  comparative  indifference  to  the 
ungodly  who  were  around  them.  Here  is  a 
severe  sentence  from  "  The  Saints'  Everlast- 
ing Rest " ;  it  is  an  admonition  addressed 
to  the  parish  clergy  :  "  Have  a  watchful  eye 
upon  each  particular  sheep  in  your  flock ;  do 
not  as  the  lazy  Separatists,  that  gather  a  few 
of  the  best  together,  and  take  them  only  for 
their  charge,  leaving  the  rest  to  sink  or  swim, 
and  giving  them  over  to  the  Divel  and  their 
lusts,  and  except  it  be  by  a  Sermon  in  the 
pulpit,  scarce  ever  endeavouring  their  salva- 
tion, nor  once  looking  what  becomes  of  them. 
0,  let  it  not  be  so  with  you."  The  same 
criticism  is  still  occasionally  passed  on  Non- 
conformist ministers  by  pious  clergymen  of 
the  Established  Church.  They  look  upon 
all  the  residents  in  the  parish  as  equally 
within  their  cure,  and  treat  them  as  all  alike 
members  of  the  Church.  It  is  a  heavy  re- 
sponsil)ility  they  are  bearing ;  the  conscious- 
ness of  it  makes  them  disposed  to  judge,  as 
indifferent  to  the  ])urden  of  souls,  the  ministers 
whose  sole  charge  is  the  fellowship  of  men  and 
women  like  -  minded  with  themselves.  John 
Wesley    uses    Baxter's    word.       In    his    Diary, 


REACTIONS  AND  Rp]VIVAL  145 

when  he  records,  as  he  frequently  has  to  do, 
that  some  of  his  preachers  become  Independ- 
ent ministers,  he  taxes  them  with  laziness. 
Wesley's  "  parish  "  was  "  the  world  ;  "  he  has 
the  zeal  for  itinerant — Apostolic — preaching 
which  Baxter  has  for  parish  visitation ;  lie 
cannot  understand  the  intensive  culture  of 
souls,  nor  think  of  men  who  are  not  ready 
to  share  his  special  labour  as  actuated  by  any 
other  motive  than  love  of  ease. 

Baxter  was  comparatively  a  young  man,  and 
a  minister  of  small  experience,  when  he  wrote 
the  words  I  have  quoted.  Six  years  after,  in 
"  The  Reformed  Pastor,"  he  speaks  ditferently. 
Appealing  again  to  the  parish  clergy,  he  says  : 
"  AVe  do  keep  up  Separation,  by  permitting 
the  worst  to  be  uncensured  in  our  churches ;  so 
that  many  lionest  Christians  think  they  are 
necessitated  to  withdraw.  I  must  profess  that 
I  have  spoke  with  some  members  of  the  Sepa- 
rated (or  gathered)  churches,  that  were  mode- 
rate men,  and  have  argued  with  them  against 
their  way,  and  they  have  assured  me  that  they 
were  of  the  Presbyterian  judgment,  or  had 
nothing  to  say  against  it,  l)ut  they  joyned 
themselves    with    other    churches    upon    mere 

K 


146  REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL 

necessity,  thinking  that  Discipline,  being  an 
ordinance  of  Christ,  must  be  used  by  all  that 
can,  and  therefore  they  durst  no  longer  live 
without  it  when  they  may  have  it ;  and  they 
could  find  no  Presbyterian  churches  that  exe- 
cuted Discipline,  as  they  wrote  for  it ;  and 
they  told  me  that  they  did  thus  separate  only 
jpro  tempore,  till  the  Presbyterians  will  use 
Discipline,  and  then  they  would  willingly  re- 
turn to  them  again.  I  confess  I  was  sorry 
that  such  persons  had  any  such  occasion  to 
withdraw,  and  the  least  ground  for  such  a 
reason  of  their  doings.  It  is  not  keeping 
them  from  the  Sacrament  that  will  excuse  us 
from  the  further  exercise  of  Discipline,  while 
they  are  members  of  our  churches."  In  his 
later  years,  when  he  wrote  his  Autobiography 
— one  of  the  most  interesting  of  our  English 
classics — he  goes  still  further.  He  describes 
his  graduated  care  of  his  parishioners.  His 
first  charge  is  the  members,  that  is,  the  re- 
cognised communicants  ;  then  he  thinks  of  the 
members  of  the  congregation  who  are  not  com- 
municants ;  afterward,  as  time  and  strength 
will  allow,  he  labours  among  the  parishioners 
generally  who  do   not  come  to  church.     "For 


REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL  147 

the  Independents,"  he  says,  "  I  saw  that  most  of 
them  were  zealous,  and  very  many  learned,  dis- 
creet, and  godly  men,  and  fit  to  be  very  service- 
able in  the  church.  And  I  found  in  the  search 
of  Scripture  and  Antiquity,  that  in  the  begin- 
ning a  Governed  Church,  and  a  Stated  Wor- 
shipinng  Church,  were  all  one,  and  not  two 
severall  things  .  .  .  and  that  they  were  socie- 
ties of  Christians  united  for  Personal  Com- 
munion;  and  not  only  for  Communion  by 
Meetings  of  Officers  and  Delegates  in  Synods,  as 
many  churches  in  Association  be.  And  I  saw 
if  once  we  go  beyond  the  bounds  of  Personal 
Communion,  as  the  end  of  Particular  Churches, 
in  the  Definition,  we  may  make  a  Church  of  a 
nation,  or  of  ten  nations,  or  what  we  please, 
which  shall  have  none  of  the  natural  ends  of 
the  Primitive  particular  Churches.  Also  I  saw  a 
commendable  care  of  Serious  Holiness  and  Dis- 
cipline in  most  of  the  Independent  churches." 


Ill 

Turning  to  the  biographies  of  tlie  eighteenth 
century,  we  have  many  charming  pictures  of 
dissenting  churches.      We  see  small  comniuni- 


148  REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL 

ties  under  the  afFectionate  and  unwearied  care 
of  godly  ministers,  living  lives  of  great  eleva- 
tion, often  of  singular  domestic  graciousness 
and  gravity.  The  most  favoured  ministers  are 
of  very  moderate  means,  and  the  majority  are 
poor,  as  are  many  of  the  members.  But  there 
is  no  misery  in  their  poverty ;  always  they 
have  the  Good  Shepherd's  guidance,  in  green 
pastures,  to  still  waters,  and  gifts  from  generous 
hands  are  not  wanting.  The  churches  are 
rigorously  self-sustaining,  and  watchful  over 
their  poorer  members.  The  students  for  the 
ministry  gather  together  as  the  family  of  their 
tutor,  conducted  through  a  fairly  wide  range 
of  human  and  divine  learning,  leading  in  turn 
the  devotions  of  the  household,  encouraged  to 
preach  to  the  church  of  which  their  tutor  is 
the  pastor,  and  sent  out  by  him  to  conduct 
cottage  services.  Isaac  Watts  belongs  to  them 
— the  gifted  and  beautiful  boy,  a  scholar  from 
his  childhood,  and  never  relaxing  in  his  love 
of  knowledge,  soothing  the  sorrows  of  a  sickly 
life  with  "divine  and  moral  songs,"  affection- 
ately tending  a  small  church  in  the  city  of 
London,  and  living  for  several  years  at  Stoke 
Newington  in  the  country  house   of  Mr.    and 


REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL  149 

Mrs.  Elizabeth  Abney  (afterwards  Sir  Thomas 
and  Lady  Abney),  whose  })eautiful  grounds  are 
now  the  cemetery  of  Abney  Park,  the  necro- 
polis of  London  Evangelical  Dissenters,  l^hilip 
Doddridge  was  another,  the  country  pastor  at 
Kibworth  in  Leicestershire,  then  town  minister 
in  Northampton,  preaching  a  gracious  doctrine 
that  broadened  away  from  Calvinistic  ortho- 
doxy, always  having  students  in  his  home  over 
whom  he  sedulously  watched,  writing  a  family 
exposition  of  the  Scriptures,  and  a  treatise  on 
the  "  Rise  and  Progress  of  Religion  in  the 
Soul,"  which  all  Christians  loved  to  read.  He, 
too,  was  a  poet  and  a  valetudinarian.  His 
death  at  Lisbon,  where  he  was  in  search  of 
health,  the  more  impressed  his  memory  on  his 
people's  hearts.  Northamptonshire  and  Leices- 
tershire still  cherish  his  name  with  sinoular 
reverence,  and  visitors  are  shewn  relics  of  him 
which  are  religiously  preserved.  There  were 
less  known  homes,  where  ministers  lived  an 
obscure  l)ut  sufficient  life — some  teacliers  of 
boys,  others  farmers,  al)le  to  load  a  ha}X'art 
with  tlie  l)est ;  others  students  of  science — 
natural  philosophy,  as  it  was  then  called — 
all   known  for  men   of  Ood,  wliom  the  country 


ISO  REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL 

round    acknowledged    at   their   death    to    have 
been  worthy  of  their  people's  attachment. 

But  the  disabling  influence  of  smallness  was 
upon  it  all.  They  were  not  conscious  of  it 
when  they  were  among  their  books  ;  there  they 
were  free  of  the  best  society.  But  they  never 
stepped  beyond  their  own  door  without  being 
reminded  that  they  were  an  excluded  class. 
In  a  different  fashion,  they  felt  the  contrast 
between  Puritan  loftiness  of  aspiration  and 
Puritan  narrowness  of  opportunity,  which  made 
Hawthorne  the  man  he  was.  As  they  had  not 
the  fret  of  genius,  they  did  not  grow  vocal ; 
they  simply  gave  themselves  to  make  the  best 
for  God  they  could  of  their  sunless  lives.  Their 
church  was  the  only  sphere  to  which  they  could 
give  their  practical  energies  when  the  daily 
work  for  daily  bread  was  ended ;  and  they 
watched  its  purity,  its  doctrinal  soundness,  its 
zeal  for  truth,  and  its  devotional  temper  with 
a  jealousy  that  was  not  always  wise.  The  mem- 
bers scrutinised  each  other's  conduct,  harassed 
their  children  with  premature  anxieties,  became 
formal  in  speech  and  habit.  Their  younger 
men  grew  doctrinaire  and  controversial,  catch- 
ing at  every  phantom  of  free  thought,  imbibing 


REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL  151 

the  social  and  political  doctrines  which  were 
preparing  for  the  French  Revolution.  So,  at 
least,  Samuel  Wesley  says  in  an  evidently  pre- 
judiced account  of  his  residence  at  Mr.  Morton's 
academy  in  Stoke  Newington.  The  students 
read  books  they  ought  not  to  have  read, 
lampooned  the  parish  clergyman,  and  boldly 
proclaimed  king-killing  doctrines. 

These  are  dangers  inherent  in  Separatism. 
In  a  narrow  sphere  Independency  is  not  always 
lovely.  Church  discipline  tends  to  become 
vexatious,  pragmatic ;  tlie  meddling  man  is 
able  to  make  too  much  of  himself,  enlarge  the 
range  of  practical  thought  and  effort,  and  Con- 
gregationalism is  a  generous  church  system,  as 
broad  as  it  is  lofty.  So  John  Rol)iMson  felt 
when  he  counselled  the  pilgrims  to  be  exiles  no 
longer  in  a  foreign  land,  but  go  out  and  reclaim 
a  country  and  found  a  commonwealth  of  their 
own.  So  Ilcnry  Jacob  felt  when  he  1)roug]it  back 
to  London  some  poor  fragments  of  the  Amster- 
dam Church,  preferring  danger  in  the  nation  of 
which  he  was  a  citizen  to  safety  in  the  land  of 
others.  The  misery  of  the  Act  of  Toleration  was 
that  under  it,  for  a  century,  so  many  English- 
men had  ceased  to  be  citizens  of  England. 


152  REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL 

In  these  circumstances  Dr.  Watts  wrote  for 
public  worship  his  Psalms,  Hymns,  and  Spiri- 
tual Songs.  They  are  out  of  date  now,  and 
perhaps  the  book  as  a  whole  may  never  be 
republished.  But  they  are  worth  reading,  and 
to  the  Congregationalist,  Congregational  habit 
will  continually  appear  in  them.  In  trans- 
lating the  Psalms,  Dr.  Watts  could  not  but 
be  patriotic.  His  patriotism  expends  itself 
mostly  on  two  themes  —  ideal  England  and 
spiritual  churches.  He  was  not  at  all  a  narrow 
Dissenter,  but  he  had  Congregational  fellow- 
ships in  view  when  he  wrote — 

"  These  temples  of  his  grace. 
How  beautiful  they  stand  ! 
The  honours  of  our  native  place, 
And  bulwarks  of  our  land." 

"  Let  strangers  walk  around 
The  city  where  we  dwell, 
Compass  and  view  thine  holy  ground, 
And  mark  the  building  well : 

The  orders  of  thy  house. 

The  worsliip  of  thy  court, 
The  cheerful  songs,  the  solemn  vows, 

And  make  a  fair  report. 

How  decent  and  how  wise  ! 

How  glorious  to  behold  ! 
Beyond  the  pomp  that  charms  the  eyes. 

And  rites  adorned  with  "old." 


REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL  153 

There  is  one  of  his  hymns  which  Congrcga- 
tionalists  used  to  be  charged  with  always  sing- 
ing ;  our  own  speakers  are  sure  to  make  a  point 
on  a  platform  if  they  will  say,  "  We  no  longer 
love  to  sing — 

"  'We  are  a  garden  wall'd  around.'" 

I  have  frequently  asked  Congregational  gather- 
ings if  any  one  present  ever  heard  the  hymn 
sung ;  and  no  matter  how  old  some  of  the  per- 
sons may  be,  I  have  not  yet  seen  the  man  old 
enough  to  remember  it.  But  I  do  not  envy  the 
member  of  a  church  who  could  read  only  to 
repudiate  such  verses  as  these — 

"  We  arc  a  garden  wallM  around, 
Cliosen  and  made  peculiar  ground  ; 
A  little  spot  enclosed  by  grace 
Out  of  the  world's  wide  Avilderness. 

Like  trees  of  myrrh  and  spice  we  stand 
Planted  by  God  the  Father's  hand ; 
And  all  his  springs  in  Zion  flow 
To  make  the  young  plantations  grow. 

Awake,  O  heavenly  wind,  and  come. 
Blow  on  this  garden  of  perfume : 
Spirit  Divine  !  descend  and  broatlic 
A  gracious  gale  on  plants  beneath. 

Make  our  best  spices  flow  abroad. 
To  entertain  our  Saviour  God  ; 
And  faith,  and  love,  and  joy  api)car, 
And  ever}'  grace  be  active  here." 


154  REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL 

Whatever  may  be  the  dignity  or  the  mean- 
ness of  the  stanzas,  it  shouhl  be  remembered 
that  English  Dissenters  had  not  chosen  the 
condition  for  themselves.  Not  from  them  had 
come  the  exclusion,  and  the  narrowness,  and  the 
retirement ;  but  it  was  theirs  to  look  upward 
for  a  Heavenly  Guest,  and  to  pray  that  they 
might  be  found  ready  for  His  visitation. 

HI 

It  is  not  surprising  that,  under  such  condi- 
tions, the  religious  needs  of  the  people  of 
England  should  come  to  be  overlooked,  alike 
when  Conformists  and  Nonconformists  were 
struggling  for  the  mastery,  and  when  both 
acquiesced  in  a  settlement  of  their  difficulties 
by  compromise.  The  excitements  of  the  six- 
teenth and  seventeenth  centuries  gave  way  to 
a  great  lethargy  which,  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, affected  all  the  higher  life  of  the  nation. 
Philosophy  had  become  critical  instead  of  con- 
structive ;  and  inevitably  a  period  of  scepticism 
followed,  when  theology  lost  its  lofty  specu- 
lative bias,  and  was  wholly  devoted  to  apologetic. 
Physical  science  was  attracting  the  more  ardent 


KEACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL  155 

minds,  and  historical  study  was  reborn  ;  Ijut 
metaphysic  was  discountenanced  as  leading  to 
no  sure  result ;  the  metaphysic  of  the  time  was 
not  even  educative.  Literature  had  lost  imagina- 
tion ;  the  belles  lettres  had  taken  the  place  of 
poetry  ;  the  writings  of  the  time  are  admirable 
for  the  clear  simplicity  of  their  style ;  even  the 
ponderousness  of  the  pulpit  died  out  in  the 
prevailing  taste  for  common  sense  and  lucid 
utterance.  Religious  excitement  was  no  longer 
characteristic  of  leading  men  ;  Dr.  Sacheverell 
was  perhaps  a  true,  he  was  certainly  a  squalid, 
successor  to  Whitgift  and  Laud.  The  mob 
broke  out  into  frightful  excesses,  such  as  that 
in  which  Dr.  Priestley's  library  was  burnt,  and 
dissenting  chapels  were  wrecked.  Notwith- 
standing these  occasional  extravagances,  the 
age  was  not  intolerant  ;  but  the  tolerance  was 
rather  that  of  exhaustion  than  largeness  in 
mind  and  heart.  Relis;ion  seemed  to  have 
decayed  with  bigotry.  Good  men  were  gravely 
concerned  with  the  apparently  universal  indif- 
ference to  serious  reli<i;ion.  It  is  a  cheerinix 
sign  of  the  times — one  that  heralded  better 
days — that  Churchmen  and  Dissenters  did  not 
accuse   each   other  of  beintr  the   cause  of  this 


156  REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL 

spiritual  indifference.  Doddridge  wrote  of  the 
decay  of  the  dissenting  interest,  but  it  was  of 
spiritual  religion,  not  of  denominational  influ- 
ence, lie  was  thinking.  Bishop  Butler  wrote  of 
unbelief  as  a  lamentable  feature  of  the  age,  not 
as  a  consequence  of  sectarian  animosity. 

Then  came  Methodism  and  the  Evangelical 
Revival,  which  changed  the  face  of  England, 
and  influenced  the  whole  English-speaking 
world,  affecting  the  destiny  of  America  and 
the  future  colonies  of  Great  Britain  as  markedly 
as  it  affected  the  homeland.  Two  things  are 
noteworthy  about  this  revival.  The  movement 
was  not  primarily  Evangelistic,  although  it  very 
soon  became  so.  It  sprang  out  of  a  profound 
concern  for  personal  godliness,  and  shewed 
itself  in  a  longing  for  deep,  inward,  spiritual 
fellowship,  such  as  the  Established  Church  did 
not  contemplate  and  provide  for.  The  spirit 
which  led  the  Congregational  martyrs,  Barrowe, 
and  Greenwood,  and  Penry,  to  demand  liberty 
for  "gathered  churches," — "the  grasp  of  the 
great  impulse  "  which  drove  the  Pilgrim  Fathers 
across  the  sea — was  in  these  Young  Oxford 
Reformers.  The  early  Methodist  societies  were 
incipient    Congregational    churches ;    the    same 


REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL  157 

craving  for  mutual  edification,  not  as  a  pas- 
toral function  simply,  but  as  a  privilege  and 
duty  of  each  individual  member,  appears  in 
tlieir  "  method  "  and  in  our  "  discipline."  The 
Oxford  societies  of  the  sixteenth  century,  which 
Mr.  Froude  so  beautifully  describes,  were  re- 
peated by  John  Wesley  and  his  friends  ;  and 
with  a  similar  result.  The  earlier  societies 
were  contributory  to  the  growth  of  Separatism  ; 
the  Methodists,  too,  became  Separatists.  It 
took  some  of  them  a  long  time  to  learn  whither 
they  were  tending,  and  how  God's  hand  \\as 
impelling  them  on.  Down  to  the  middle  of 
this  century  VVesleyan  JMethodism  repelled 
the  idea  of  constituting  itself  a  church.  There 
were  secessions  from  the  Wesleyan  Societies, 
and  each  secession  became  a  church  ;  the  old 
body  clung  affectionately  to  the  delusion  that 
its  people  were  still  members  of  the  National 
Church,  claiming  a  freedom  which  the  bishops 
and  Parliament  would  at  length  confirm  them 
in.  In  1 89 1  the  spell  was  l)roken  ;  the 
Wesleyan  Methodist  Church  was  recognised 
by  Conference.  In  1881  had  been  held  the 
first  Oecumenical  Conference  of  the  W  esleyan 
Methodist   Churches — of  wdiicli   there  are  half- 


158  REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL 

a-dozen  in  Englaud  alone — and  in  1892  they 
joined  with  Baptists,  Congregation alists,  and 
Presbyterians  at  the  Free  Church  Congress  in 
Manchester,  in  a  common  utterance  that  a 
Church  of  Christ  is  a  permanent  society  of 
Christian  believers,  and  no  others ;  and  that 
Church  fellowship  is  no  accident  of  nationality, 
or  heredity,  but  is  the  mutual  communion  of 
all  the  members. 

The  next  noteworthy  fact  about  the  Evan- 
gelical Revival  is  that  it  sprang  out  of  the 
Church  of  England,  not  out  of  eighteenth- 
century  dissent.  John  Wesley  was  the  descend- 
ant, through  both  his  parents,  of  Presbyterian 
clergymen  ejected  from  their  livings  on  black 
Bartholomew  Day,  1662.  His  father  and 
mother  had  voluntarily  and  conscientiously, 
and  at  some  cost  of  feeling,  gone  back  to 
the  establishment  before  their  marriaore.  The 
filiation  of  the  present  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church  to  the  old  Puritanism  of  the  Presby- 
terian type  is  more  than  the  accident  of  its 
founder's  parentage.  It  is  Presbyterian  in  its 
government,  Puritan  in  ecclesiastical  habit. 
There  is  no  inherent  antagonism  in  it  to  the 
theory  of  a  National  Church ;    many  Wesleyan 


REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL  i  S9 

Methodists  would  probably  prefer  tlie  machinery 
of  such  a  Church  if  it  left  them  freedom  of 
s]oiritual  movement ;  and  they  would  not  re- 
gard the  two  conditions  as  incompatible.  The 
patience  with  which  Cartwright  and  Baxter 
bore  with  the  imperfections  of  the  National 
Church,  its  petty  interferences,  sometimes  its 
malignant  persecution,  hoping  against  hope 
that  there  would  be  found  a  place  for  them 
within  its  constitution,  was  like  that  of  Wesley. 
And  the  reason  was  the  same,  not  love  of 
ease,  or  of  consideration,  but  the  deep  con- 
viction that  a  National  Church  gave  a  gospel 
minister  such  opportunities  and  advantages  for 
the  full  exercise  of  his  ministry  as  no  other 
Church  relation  could  furnish.  Baxter  and 
Wesley  were  very  unlike  in  more  than  their 
theology — and  I  confess  that  I  am  much  more 
attracted  by  the  personality  of  Baxter  than 
by  that  of  Wesley — but  I  cannot  read  over 
Baxter's  reasonings  on  such  subjects  as  the 
Christian  ministry,  the  spiritual  needs  of  a 
people,  and  the  methods  in  which  they  may 
best  be  supplied,  without  having  before  me 
the  picture  of  A\'esley  in  action. 


i6o  REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL 

IV 

The  term  "  Methodism "  in  the  nineteenth 
century  came  to  connote  two  ideas — Arminianism 
in  doctrine,  and  Connectionalism  in  government ; 
but  in  the  eighteenth  century  it  was  not  so. 
George  Whitefiekl,  a  pronounced  Calvinist,  was 
a  Methodist.  The  Countess  of  Huntingdon's 
connection  was  Methodist,  but  her  ministers 
were  almost  all  Calvinists.  There  were  within 
the  Established  Church  many  clergymen  who 
were  commonly  called  Methodists ;  some  of 
them,  like  Rowland  Hill,  founded  separate 
congregations  without  repudiating  their  Episco- 
pal orders ;  others,  like  John  Newton,  and  Scott 
the  commentator,  and  Romaine  the  preacher, 
never  extended  their  ministry  beyond  the  parish 
churches,  but  they  were  styled  Methodists, 
while  retaining  their  benefices.  These  were  for 
the  most  part  Calvinists.  The  peculiarity  of  all 
Methodists,  Calvinist  and  Arminian  alike,  was 
that  in  a  certain  vague  way  they  recognised 
three  senses  of  the  word  Church — the  National 
visible  Church,  the  Church  universal  and  in- 
visible, and  a  tertium  quid,  an  invisible  but 
partly  recognisable  body  of  the  faithful   within 


REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL  i6i 

the  parish  churches.  John  AVesley  organised 
these  true  believers,  on  confession  of  their 
desire  "  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come,"  into 
societies  under  the  direction  of  the  itinerant 
preachers,  which  societies  were  divided  up  into 
classes  meeting  weekly  under  the  charge  of 
godly  men  and  women,  whom  the  preachers 
appointed.  These  societies  came  to  have 
separate  places  of  meeting  built  for  them.  At 
first  the  members  were  careful  to  meet  at  other 
hours  than  those  appointed  for  public  worship 
in  the  parish  churches ;  in  all  ways  Wesley  took 
care  to  impress  on  them  the  fact  that  these  were 
not  companies  of  Dissenters,  but  members  of  the 
Established  Church,  supplementing  the  national 
observance  by  gatherings  for  their  mutual 
edification.  The  Countess  of  Huntingdon  en- 
couraged the  formation  of  such  societies,  and 
made  them  more  pastoral.  She  founded  a 
college  for  the  training  of  ministers  who  should 
watch  over  and  direct  them.  Some  of  her 
students  received  Episcopal  ordination,  and 
carried  on  their  work  in  the  parish  churches  ; 
others  became  non-Episcopal  ministers  and  met 
their  followers  in  chapels  which  she  erected  for 
them.      There  were   many   of  the  Established 


1 62  REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL 

clergy  in  general  sympathy  with  the  men  of  the 
Revival,  who  did  not  form  these  societies  ;  they 
preached  to  the  parish  congregation  as  if  it  were 
a  gathered  church,  and  watched  over  the  parish 
in  the  spirit  and  manner  of  Richard  Baxter. 
This  was  the  origin  of  the  Evangelical  party 
within  the  Established  Church,  a  body  which 
for  half  a  century  exercised  perhaps  the  greatest 
religious  influence  on  the  domestic  life  of 
England. 

All  these  new  forces,  originating  in  the 
Oxford  Revival,  told  directly  on  English 
Congregationalism,  adding  to  its  numbers,  en- 
riching its  experience,  broadening  its  purpose, 
enlarging  its  activities.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
existence  of  the  Congregational  churches  sup- 
plied Methodism  with  an  example  of  free 
religious  communities,  and  a  norm  of  church 
doctrine.  John  Wesley  tried  his  best  to  hold  in 
check  the  inevitable  development  of  his  societies 
into  a  dissenting  church,  but  in  vain.  He  was 
continually  losing  preachers  wdio  found  the 
itinerant  system  burdensome  and  inefficient, 
and  who  became  Congregational  pastors,  bring- 
ing an  Arminian  leaven  into  Independency. 
He  was  forced  to  gather  his  preachers  into  a 


REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL  163 

conference,  who  undertook  the  charge  of  the 
societies,  repeating,  with  some  variation,  and 
with  more  success,  the  effort  of  the  Puritans  to 
organise  religious  communities  from  the  Synod 
and  Presbytery  downward ;  repeating  also  the 
Puritan  experience  that  Christ's  freemen  will 
not  always  endure  to  be  a  governed  body, 
that  a  voluntary  church  must  ultimately 
become  self- administrative.  Each  secession 
from  Wesleyanism — and  there  have  been  half- 
a-dozen — has  given  more  and  more  representa- 
tion to  the  lay  members.  Some  Primitive 
Methodists  frankly  confess  that  they  have  more 
in  common  with  Congregationalists  than  with 
the  old  body.  There  are  Independent  Metho- 
dists, retaining  their  Arminianism,  but  Congre- 
gational in  government.  Another  of  these 
communities  is  known  as  the  United  Methodist 
Free  C'hurclies — not  church — and  its  repre- 
sentative body  has  abandoned  the  old  Methodist 
name — Conference  or  Connexion — for  the  Con- 
gregational term  —  Assembly.  Nearly  every 
congregation  founded  by  the  Countess  of 
Huntingdon  has  become  an  Independent  church. 
Finally,  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Conference  has 
ceased  to  be  a  merely  clerical  body.     Hampered 


1 64  REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL 

by  legal  restrictions,  and  made  to  move  slowly 
by  the  fears  of  the  older  men,  the  Conference 
has  added  lay  representatives  to  its  sessions,  and 
these  are  acquiring  an  equal  as  well  as  a  real 
power  of  control. 

In  a  large  number  of  cases  the  death  of  a 
fervid  Evangelical  parish  clergyman  was  followed 
by  the  formation  of  a  Congregational  church ; 
in  a  few  cases  the  Evangelical  clergyman  became 
a  Congregational  minister.  A  training  school 
for  Evangelists,  founded  by  the  Reverend  John 
Eyre,  of  Homerton,  and  nominated  })y  Rowland 
Hill  to  be  the  residuary  legatee  of  his  estate,  is 
now  Hackney  College.  A  similar  institution, 
founded  at  Trevecca  by  the  Countess  of 
Huntingdon,  is  now  Cheshunt  College.  The 
principals,  professors,  and  students  of  both 
these  colleges  are  generally,  though  not  by 
legal  compulsion,  Congregationalists. 

One  or  two  interestino;  marks  of  this  transi- 
tion  period  will  strike  the  literary  student. 
Take  up,  for  instance,  a  copy  of  John  Wesley's 
Hymn-Book,  as  he  left  it,  and  read  the  head- 
lines. You  will  find  "The  Society"  and  "Be- 
lievers "  where,  in  other  Hymn  -  Books,  you 
would  find    "  The  Church."     Take  up  a  copy 


REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL  165 

of  Watts's  Hymns,  and  you  will  not  find  the 
word  "  Chapel."  He  lias  entitled  the  hymn 
"  How  pleased  and  blessed  was  I,"  for  instance, 
"  On  going  to  Church."  The  word  chapel  was 
not,  in  his  time,  commonly  used  by  Congre- 
gationalists.  Its  subsequent  prevalence  marks 
the  influence  of  Methodism  on  English  Non- 
conformity ;  the  chapel  was  a  building,  supple- 
mentary of  and  subordinate  to  the  parish 
church.  The  old  Cons^reejational  word  in 
England,  as  in  America,  was  meeting  -  house, 
or  meeting  ;  the  modern  term  in  England,  as 
in  America,  is  church. 


V 

The  exclusive  spirit  has  gone  from  Independ- 
ency not  to  return.  Many  causes  have  been 
at  work  to  produce  this  change — the  growth 
of  the  nation,  with  the  new  problems  that 
growth  has  brought  with  it ;  the  broadening 
of  all  human  thought ;  the  feeling  which  has 
come  with  increasing  consciousness  of  the 
limitations  of  certainty  that  dogmatism  is 
absurd,  inhuman ;  the  enlarging  charity  of 
life  ;   but  the  first  impulse  came  from  Method- 


1 66  REACTIONS  AND  REVIVAL 

ism  and  the  Evangelical  Revival.  To  a  con- 
siderable extent  Ens^lish  Cong;reo;ationalism  has 
been  modified  by  the  number  of  Methodist 
preachers  who,  from  the  first  and  down  to 
the  present,  have  come  into  our  ministry. 
The  example  of  the  Methodists  is,  moreover, 
a  stimulus  to  every  Christian  society  in  the 
land.  But  the  spirit  of  Methodism  is  mightier 
than  its  men.  All  the  churches  in  Eno;land 
are  penetrated  by  the  deep  conviction  that 
their  obligations  are  not  limited  to  their  own 
adherents;  the  church  may  be  "gathered." 
"  particular,"  "  separate,"  but  the  sphere  of 
their  work,  and  therefore  their  responsibility, 
is  national,  world-wide.  "  Go  and  make  dis- 
ciples of  all  the  nations." 


LECTURE  V 

CONGREGATIONALISTS   AND   ANGLICANS 
IN   THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY 


Removal  of  Nonconformist  Disabilities  in  the  Nineteenth 
Century — Influence  of  the  long  Struggle  on  Nonconformist 
Character — Emancipation  of  England — The  Franchise — 
Local  Councils — Dissenters  Liberals  in  Politics — Is  this  to 
be  regretted  1 — Abatement  of  Controversial  Bitterness — 
Formation  and  Motive  of  the  Liberation  Society — Preva- 
lence and  Decay  of  Individualism — Congregational  Indi- 
vidualism— Effect  of  this  on  Theology — The  Doctrine  of  the 
Church — The  Oriel  School  and  Congregationalists — John 
Henry  Newman — "  Ideal  of  a  Christian  Church  " — The 
Church  a  Voluntary  Society — Defects  of  this  Definition — 
The  Separatist  Doctrine  of  the  Church  recovered — The  Broad 
Church — Thomas  Arnold — Frederick  Denison  Maurice — 
His  Influence  on  young  Congregationalists — Christ's  Head- 
ship of  the  Human  Kace — Maurice  and  Dale — Congre- 
gationalists and  Synods — English  Congregationalists'  Dis- 
like of  Councils — Organisation  of  the  Congregational 
Churches — Tlie  "  Small  Private  Church  "  and  the  Nation. 


LECTURE  Y 

CONGREGATION  A  LISTS   AND    ANGLICANS 


The  nineteenth  century  witnessed  the  removal 
of  nearly  all  the  disabilities  under  which  Eng- 
lish Nonconformists  laboured,  througli  the  Act 
of  Uniformity  and  those  specific  Acts  which 
were  passed  to  shut  them  out  of  public  life. 
The  repeal  of  the  Test  and  Corporation  Acts 
in  1828  allowed  them  to  accept  municipal 
office  and  to  enter  the  Civil  Service.  The 
University  Tests  Act,  passed  in  1871,  com- 
pleted a  series  of  changes  by  whicdi  they 
could  go  to  college,  matriculate  in  the  uni- 
versities, and  take  their  deoirees  :  the  grammar 
schools  have  been  opened  to  them  as  pupils 
and  under-masters,  though  the  head-master- 
ships are  still  to  a  considerable  extent  con- 
fined to  clergymen  of  the  Established  C^liurcli. 

An  Act    for   the  Registration  of  Marriages,  in 

169 


1 70  CONGREGATIONALISTS 

1836,  enabled  them  to  be  married  in  their 
own  places  of  worship  and  by  their  own 
ministers.  An  Act  for  the  Remstration  of 
Births  and  Deaths,  passed  the  same  year, 
facilitated  the  introduction  of  a  subsequent 
measure  by  which  they  can  bury  their  dead 
in  the  graveyards  of  their  parishes  and  in  the 
consecrated  part  of  the  public  cemeteries,  with- 
out the  service  of  the  Established  Church. 
The  slowness  of  their  emancipation,  even  under 
favourable  circumstances,  is  illustrated  by  the 
fact  that  this  latter  Bill  did  not  become  law 
until  1880,  The  disability  removed  by  the 
public  registration  of  births  was  so  petty,  so 
significant  of  the  bigotry  which  watched  over 
every  section  of  life,  that  it  deserves  a  some- 
what fuller  notice.  Up  to  1836  the  regular 
way  of  proving  age  was  the  production  of  a 
certificate  of  baptism.  When  a  policy  of  Life 
Assurance  was  to  be  paid,  when  lads  entered 
some  public  offices,  when  personal  identity  was 
to  be  established,  or  a  passport  for  foreign 
travel  was  applied  for,  the  baptismal  certificate 
had  to  be  produced ;  and  if  it  was  not  forth- 
coming, some  one  had  to  be  hunted  up  who 
remembered  the  birth,  and  his  or  her — gene- 


AND  ANGLICANS  171 

rally  her — affidavit  was  grudgingly  accepted 
instead.  So  deeply  had  this  custom  rooted 
itself  in  English  habit,  that  the  London  Uni- 
versity, founded  in  1S37  as  a  Liberal  university, 
priding  itself  on  its  complete  ignoring  of  the 
religious  beliefs  of  its  members,  asked  matricu- 
lating students  for  their  baptismal  certificates. 
All  Dissenters  found  this  constant  requirement 
vexatious ;  to  Baptists,  (»)uakers,  Jews,  and 
Sceptics  it  seemed  insulting  and  profane. 

The  story  of  this  century  of  emancipation 
is,  to  those  who  took  part  in  it,  a  matter  of 
pride.  Our  children,  and  freemen  not  natives 
of  Eno;land,  will  wonder — not  altosjether  ad- 
miringly — at  the  patience  which  could  make 
men  endure  sucli  ignominy  so  long.  The  Act 
of  Toleration  made  it  possible.  The  religious 
Dissenter — and  the  burden  bore  most  heavily 
on  him — had  his  chapel,  his  times  of  social 
worship,  his  fellowship  with  persons  like- 
minded  to  himself.  Some  qualities  of  Eng- 
lish Nonconformists  will  be  better  appreciated 
as  we  recall  the  story — their  intense  love  of 
their  Churches,  their  strenuousness  and  vigil- 
ance, their  faith  in  little  communities,  and  their 
hal)it    of    not    despising     "  the    day    of    small 


172  CONGREGATIONALISTS 

things " ;  their  passion  for  liberty,  the  deep 
indignation  against  all  unnecessary  restrictions 
under  which  their  thought  about  the  rights  of 
conscience  broadened,  so  that  they  who  began 
by  asking  toleration  for  themselves  became 
the  advocates  of  a  universal  toleration,  and 
secured  for  the  Jew,  the  Roman  Catholic,  and 
the  unbeliever  the  same  rio;lits  as  their  own. 
The  conventicle  did  this  great  work  for  Eng- 
land. When  the  phrase  "  the  consolations  of 
religion "  is  used  on  the  platform  and  in  the 
press,  it  generally  refers  to  a  man's  comfort  in 
dying.  The  Nonconformist  found  "  the  con- 
solations of  religion "  effective  for  life ;  they 
gave  him  patience,  forbearance,  hope ;  he  used 
what  liberty  he  had,  and  in  no  revolutionary 
temper,  but,  unwearied  and  ever  watchful,  he 
sought  for  more. 

In  a  larger  sense,  the  nineteenth  century 
may  be  called  the  century  of  the  emancipation 
of  England.  Its  greatest  achievement  w^as  the 
passing  of  the  first  Reform  Bill  in  1832.  Up 
to  that  time  the  franchise,  national  and  muni- 
cipal, was  not  regarded  as  the  right  of  the 
English  people  :  it  had  come  to  be  the  privi- 
lege of  the   few.     Parliament  was  originally  a 


AND  ANGLICANS  173 

Council  called  toejether  to  advise  the  kin^. 
The  county  franchise  represented  the  ancient 
right  of  occupiers  of  land  to  be  represented  in 
this  Council ;  as  towns  grew  some  of  them 
were  summoned  at  the  royal  pleasure  to  send 
their  members  to  the  House  of  Commons, 
The  privilege  was  not  at  first  highly  valued ; 
indeed,  there  were  boroughs  which  asked  to  be 
relieved  of  the  burden,  because  of  the  cost  and 
trouble  it  imposed  on  them.  AVhile  the  power 
of  Parliament  developed,  the  privilege  increased 
in  value.  The  idea  of  privilege  was  intensified 
by  the  growth  of  tradition  and  the  pride  of  the 
old  historic  boroughs.  The  municipal  franchises 
had  grown  out  of  trade  guilds,  and  privileges 
granted  by  special  charters,  which  charters  were 
conferred  by  lords  of  manors  as  well  as  by 
the  Crown.  In  the  breathing  time  of  the 
eighteenth  century  men  had  begun  to  sec  that 
England  was  a  people,  and  that  old  feudal 
customs,  which  had  sprung  out  of  the  needs 
of  localities,  did  not  meet  the  case.  The  en- 
franchisement of  new  boroughs  had  long  ceased  : 
the  Crown  did  not  want  them ;  tlie  Stuarts 
would  ha\c  been  glad  to  do  away  with  Parlia- 
ments altogether.     Parliamentary  and  municipal 


174  CONGREGATION  ALTSTS 

corporations  had  not  followed  the  distribution 
of  the  population.  Large  towns,  like  Man- 
chester and  Birmingham,  sent  no  members  to 
Parliament ;  the  owner  of  a  manor,  like  Old 
Sarum,  or  the  inhabitants  of  a  couple  of  farm- 
houses, like  Gatton,  did.  There  were  many- 
important  and  growing  towns  in  which  there 
was  no  corporation  at  all ;  there  were  some 
in  which  the  mayor  and  aldermen  were  nomi- 
nated by  the  lord  of  the  manor,  and  his  court 
leet  was  in  place  of  a  town  council.  Within 
the  boroughs  and  counties  the  francliise  was 
restricted,  and  it  was  not  uniform ;  there  were 
freemen  of  boroughs ;  freemen  of  companies — 
Goldsmiths,  Fishmongers,  Cordwainers,  Loriners, 
Spectacle-makers,  &c.,  &c. — in  London;  and  all 
over  the  country  there  were  scot-and-lot  voters, 
potwallopers,  faggot  voters,  and  others,  every 
name  representing  an  original  distinction  in 
the  qualification,  or  a  variation  introduced  into 
the  claim.  "  Fancy  franchises,"  as  they  were 
called,  were  defended  by  Mr.  Disraeli  with 
characteristic  affectation,  on  the  ground  that 
they  extended  the  privilege  of  voting  in  a 
picturesque,  traditional  manner. 

All  this  complicated  structure,  venerable  and 


AND  ANGLICANS  175 

decaying,  lias  been  swept  away.  Reform  Bill 
has  followed  Reform  Bill,  until  we  have  now 
the  whole  country  covered  with  electoral  dis- 
tricts, and  the  franchise  given  practically  to 
every  male  person  of  full  age  who  pays  rates 
and  taxes ;  and  Councils — town,  county,  dis- 
trict, urban,  and  rural — which  have  put  local 
pu1)lic  concerns  under  the  direction  of  the 
people  of  the  locality.  The  most  beneficial 
result  of  this  extension  of  the  franchise  has 
been  the  chanQ;e  it  has  wrouo;ht  in  men's  con- 
ception  of  what  the  power  of  voting  means. 
The  process  has  been  educative ;  it  has  called 
public  spirit  into  play  and  developed  patriot- 
ism. The  idea  that  the  franchise  is  a  privilege 
gave  w\ay  to  the  demand  for  it  as  a  right, 
and  this  gradually  passed  into  the  feeling  and 
conviction  that  it  is  a  responsibility,  a  great 
public  trust. 

II 

The  emancipation  of  the  Dissenters  and  the 
emancipation  of  England  went  on  side  by  side, 
each  movement  helping  the  other.  Hence  it 
has  come  about  that  nearly  all  Dissenters  are 
identified   with  the  Tiil)cral  party.     There  is  a 


1 76  CONGREG  ATIONALISTS 

natural,  a  psychological  aflinity  between  the 
two  causes.  English  Conservatives  may  be 
defined  as  defenders  of  privileges,  and  English 
Liberals  as  asserters  of  rights.  The  political 
agitations  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  have 
illustrated  the  sameness  of  conviction  in  Liberals 
and  Dissenters,  and  welded  them  into  one 
party.  The  alliance  has  its  disadvantages. 
We  sometimes  wish,  for  religious  reasons,  that 
the  churches  should  be  entirely  free  from  poli- 
tical prejudice,  but  it  has  worked  well  for  the 
national  life.  Whig  historians  of  the  eighteenth 
century  put  the  matter  somewhat  cynically. 
Sir  John  Dalrymple,  speaking  of  the  failure 
of  William  the  Fourth's  Comprehension  Bill, 
by  which  the  Presbyterians  would  have  been 
included  in  the  National  Church,  tells  us : 
"There  were  a  few  in  Parliament  of  firm 
minds  and  remoter  views,  who,  reflecting  that 
the  dissenting  interest  had  been  always  as 
much  attached  to  liberty  as  the  Church  of 
England  had  been  to  prerogative,  thought  that 
opposition  and  liberty  would  be  buried  in  the 
same  grave,  and  that  great  factions  should  be 
kept  alive,  both  in  Church  and  State,  for  the 
sake  of  the  State  itself."     Speaker  Onslow  con- 


AND  ANGLICANS  177 

demiis  this  maxim,  not  too  severely  :  "A  false 
and  foolish  notion,  the  artifice  of  mean  and 
weak  politicians,  who  value  themselves  upon 
small  cunning,  and  think,  or  hope  at  least,  that 
it  will  be  deemed  wisdom."  Air.  Green,  whose 
"  History  of  the  English  People  "  is  not  cynical, 
speaks  of  the  failure  of  the  Comprehensive  Bill 
as  of  the  highest  political  value.  "The  Tolera- 
tion Act  established  a  group  of  religious  bodies 
whose  religious  opposition  to  the  Church  forced 
them  to  support  the  measures  of  progress  which 
the  Church  opposed.  With  religious  forces  on 
the  one  side  and  on  the  other,  England  has 
escaped  the  great  stumbling-block  in  the  way 
of  nations  where  the  cause  of  religion  has  be- 
come identified  with  that  of  political  reaction." 

These  struggles  for  religious  equality  have, 
however,  left  very  little  ill-feeling  behind  them ; 
as  reform  after  reform  has  been  carried,  poli- 
tical conflict  has  become  larger  minded,  and 
religious  controversy  more  gracious.  A  body 
of  young  Oxford  Churchmen  threw  themselves 
into  the  agitation  for  opening  the  universities, 
declaring  that  the  nation  suilcred  more  wlien 
citizens  were  shut  out  from  the  higher  culture 

than  did   the   excluded  parties,  and   that   llni- 

M 


1 7  8  CONGREGATIONALISTS 

versity  reform  should  contemplate  the  admission 
of  poor  men  as  well  as  Nonconformists.  The 
latest  Bill  for  freeing  Dissenters  from  annoy- 
ances in  the  use  of  the  parish  graveyards  was 
introduced  in  the  House  of  Commons  by  a 
Churchman  and  Conservative.  A  few  disabili- 
ties yet  remain,  mostly  in  the  operation  of  the 
Education  Acts.  It  is  probable  they  will  be 
settled  by  common  agreement,  by  discussion 
rather  than  by  controversy.  Platform  invec- 
tive and  newspaper  bitterness  are  not  now  the 
characteristics  of  English  religious  difference ; 
where  they  appear  they  are  found  as  supersti- 
tions, bad  habits  remaining  over  from  ignorant 
times. 

Ill 

In  1844  the  Anti-State  Church  Association 
was  formed,  for  the  definite  purpose  of  securing 
self-government  to  all  Churches,  and  of  freeing 
Parliament,  which  had  now  become  the  Council 
of  the  Nation,  representing  citizens,  and  not 
sectaries,  from  the  necessity  of  legislating  in  the 
interests  of  a  single  church.  The  enfranchise- 
ment of  England  had  prepared  the  way  for  this 
movement,  and  it  came  about  when  Dissenters 


AND  ANGLICANS  179 

grew  conscious  of  their  political  strength.  But 
it  was  in  essence  a  deeply  religious  movement. 
It  was  the  full  logical  expression  of  the  Separa- 
tist conscience  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  all 
the  struo^o-les  of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries  made  it  inevitable.  The  Presbyterian 
Independents  of  the  eighteenth  century  did  not 
deem  a  State  Church  necessarily  inconsistent 
with  religious  liberty.  Even  such  a  man  as 
Doddridge  could  say  that  he  had  "  always 
pleaded  for  the  reasonableness  of  su])mitting  to 
a  majority  here,  and  of  our  being  obliged, 
thougli  we  are  Dissenters,  to  do  our  part  to- 
wards maintaining  that  clergy  wliich  the 
authorit}^  of  our  country  in  general  has  thought 
fit  to  estal)lish  ;  and  indeed,  so  far  as  I  can 
judge,  it  is  admitted  by  all  but  the  Quakers, 
whose  opposition  is  now  mere  matter  of  form." 
The  controversy  over  the  Occasional  Conformity 
and  Schism  Bills  had  perhaps  more  to  do  tlian 
any  other  single  cause  with  the  changed  mind 
of  Dissenters  in  the  nineteenth  century.  The 
attaching  of  special  civil  privileges  to  a  special 
religious  profession  was  manifestly  degrading 
the  religious  profession  itself;  it  obscured  the 
principle  adniiraljly  expressed  l)y  Robert  Browne 


1 80  CONGREGATION  ALISTS 

— "  the  Lord's  people  are  of  the  willing  sort." 
The  ease  with  which  men  could  flatter  them- 
selves into  the  belief  that  they  were  true 
Christians  because  they  observed  the  reli- 
gious ordinances  which  Parliament  sanctioned 
prompted  Mr.  Binney  to  say  that  the  Estab- 
lished Church  system  "  destroyed  more  souls 
than  it  saved."  The  sense  of  civil  justice  was 
confused  in  many  good  men's  minds  by  their 
habitual  tendency  to  defend  the  political  action 
of  governments  that  secured  them  their  favoured 
religious  position.  The  officials  of  the  Church 
of  England  as  a  whole  were  in  favour  of  the 
American  War ;  they  opposed  the  abolition  of 
slavery,  the  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws,  and  the 
abandonment  of  the  penalty  of  hanging  for 
small  offences.  The  Dissenters  were  amazed  at 
the  rancour  with  which  clergymen  opposed  their 
admission  to  the  universities,  the  conferring  on 
them  the  right  to  marriage  and  burial  by  their 
own  ministers,  and  generally  the  extension  to  all 
subjects  of  the  full  advantages  of  Englishmen. 
They  knew  that  most  of  these  clergy  were  good, 
kind-hearted  men ;  they  respected  many  of 
them  for  their  piety  and  their  devotion  to  their 
calling.     When  they  asked  themselves  how  such 


AND  ANGLICANS  i8i 

men  could  sanction  selfishness  and  injustice, 
they  could  only  assign  as  the  reason  that  their 
position  in  a  Church  specially  associated  with  a 
State  was  radically  false.  Mr.  Edward  Miall 
expressed  the  most  solemn  conviction  of  nine- 
teenth century  Nonconformists  when  he  affirmed 
again  and  again  that  their  object  was  not  so 
much  the  liberation  of  Dissenters  as  the  libera- 
tion of  Christianity,  of  religion.  It  was  to 
express  this  idea  that  the  old  name  "  Anti-State 
Church  Association,"  dear  to  Radical  reformers 
as  a  fighting  title,  was  changed  in  1853  to  the 
graver  and  more  fully  descriptive  name,  "  Society 
for  the  Liberation  of  Relisjion  from  State  Patron- 
age  and  Control."  From  the  first  the  English 
Nonconformists  had  the  Scottish  Voluntaries 
witli  them  ;  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland,  which 
originall)'  testified  to  the  need  of  a  national 
provision  Ibr  religion,  had  accepted  the  Libera- 
tion [)rinciplc  l)efore  it  joined  with  the  United 
Presbyterians  in  one  Church.  Slowly  but 
effectually  the  doctrine  is  influencing  the  niore 
earnest  members  of  the  Church  of  England 
itself. 


1 8  3  CONGREGATIONAL  ISTS 

IV 

The  advancing  work  of  emancipation  has  had 
one  result,  as  unpremeditated  as  it  has  proved 
in  its  action  to  be  benignant ;  it  has  taken  away 
that  confidence  in  individualism  which,  in  the 
early  years  of  the  century,  characterised  our 
foremost  publicists.  The  claim  of  liberty  used 
to  be  put  in  this  form  :  every  man  has  naturally 
the  right  to  perfect  freedom  of  action,  in  so  far 
as  he  does  not  encroach  on  the  rights  of  others. 
The  definition  did  not  contemplate  any  right 
in  society  to  secure  that  the  individual  should 
be  trained  for  the  duties  of  citizenship.  The 
demand  for  a  system  of  national  education  was 
resisted,  not  only  by  members  of  the  extreme 
right,  who  were  afraid  that  to  educate  the 
children  of  the  poor  would  make  them  dis- 
contented, but  also  by  members  of  the  extreme 
left,  who  would  not  have  the  authority  of  the 
parent  over  his  children  interfered  with.  These 
persons  honestly  believed  that  the  sense  of 
parental  obligation  would  be  weakened  if  the 
State  provided  public  schools  and  made  children 
attend.  Mr.  Bright  opposed  the  Mines  and 
Factories   Acts,   which   fixed  the  age   at  which 


AND  ANGLICANS  183 

children  were  set  to  work  and  the  conditions  of 
their  labour,  because  it  was  not  consistent  with 
the  rights  of  parents.  He  spoke  against  an  Act 
to  prevent  adulteration  of  articles  of  food,  be- 
cause he  dreaded  the  intrusion  of  (Jovernment 
inspectors  into  a  shopkeeper's  book-keeping. 
Our  later  leg-islation  has  defied  such  criticism. 
Not  only  are  schools  now  provided  at  the 
public  cost,  but  museums,  art  galleries,  circula- 
ting and  reference  libraries,  parks  and  play- 
grounds, baths  and  wash-houses  as  well. 
Corporations  are  empowered  to  purchase  and 
destroy  dwelling-houses  in  crowded  districts, 
and  to  build  houses  for  the  poor.  Private 
monopolies  and  the  monopoly  of  companies  are 
checked  by  the  powers  of  municipalities  to 
supply  tramways  and  omnibuses,  gas  and  water 
and  electric  power,  for  the  use  of  the  inhabi- 
tants. These  enlargements  of  State  action  were 
at  first  suspiciously  watched  ;  but  the  movement 
has  been  irresistible.  Sir  AVilliam  llarcourt's 
phrase — "  We  are  all  socialists  now  " — is  not 
strictly  accurate,  but  it  is  tlie  vivid  declaration 
of  a  fact.  To  rejoice  in  this  alteration  of  the 
national  lial)it  is  nut  necessarily  to  condemn  the 
older    individualism.       That    individualism    was 


1 84  CONGKEGATIONALISTS 

not  selfish ;  Bentliam  and  Malthus  were  as 
true  philanthropists  as  Carlyle  and  Ruskin.  Its 
error  was  that  it  mistook  a  temporary  necessity 
for  an  abiding  social  condition.  The  possibility 
of  individual  development  is  as  much  a  right  of 
man  as  freedom  of  individual  action,  and  this  by 
common  consent  the  State  is  setting  itself  to 
secure.  Socialism  itself  has  been  modified  by 
the  new  environment ;  the  former  demand  of 
equal  conditions  for  all  men  has  given  way  to 
the  claim  of  equal  opportunities.  This  formula 
will  be  seen  to  be  as  narrow  as  was  the  other ; 
indeed,  even  now,  probably,  it  does  not  mean 
all  it  says ;  it  is  really  the  claim  of  room  and 
provision  for  every  person  to  develop  himself 
according  to  his  powers,  and  to  fit  himself,  as 
fully  as  he  can,  to  render  his  own  service  to  the 
community. 

No  keener,  more  conscientious  individualists 
have  ever  been  than  were  the  Enirlish  Conc;re2;a- 
tionalists — Baptist  and  pocdo-Baptist — of  the 
first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Their 
characteristic  Church  doctrine  was  that  the 
sphere  of  religion  was  limited  to  personal 
thought  and  action,  from  which  sphere  the 
State  was  to  be  rigidly  excluded.     Hence  their 


AND  ANGLICANS  185 

objection  to  u  luitioiial  system  of  education. 
Education,  they  said,  is  not  instruction,  but 
the  training  of  the  personality.  The  doctrine 
of  the  old-fashioned  Voluntaries  was  that  no 
way  was  to  be  found  of  distinguishing  between 
education  and  reli";ion,  and  that  relio-ion  in- 
eluded  dogma  ;  and  that  therefore  to  give  educa- 
tion was  one  of  those  inward,  personal  obligations 
with  whicli  the  State  must  not  interfere. 

Their  circumstances  had  made  them  the  in- 
dividualists they  were.  Shut  away  from  public 
life,  deprived  of  the  social  advantages  provided 
by  pious  benefactors  of  the  past,  they  had  not 
only  thriven  in  temporal  affairs ;  they  had  de- 
veloped manliness  of  spirit  and  the  godly  habit. 
They  had  won  their  emancipation  by  their  own 
patient  endeavour.  We  need  not  wonder  if  the 
consciousness  of  all  this  made  them  oblivious  of 
two  other  facts,  first,  that  not  all  persons  could 
do  as  they  had  done  :  and  secondly,  that  such 
as  they  were,  they  were  not  wholly  their  own 
creation  ;  that  the  solidarity  of  the  nation  had 
been  operative  even  u])Ou  them,  that  their  very 
personality  was  English,  that  their  obligations 
were  social,  as  was  every  advantage  they  en- 
joyed.     Their  religion  was   individualistic;   per- 


I  8  6  CONGREGATION ALISTS 

sonal  election  to  personal  salvation  was  the  note 
of  the  Calvinist ;  the  notes  of  the  Evangelical 
Revival  were  personal  repentance,  conscious 
faith,  the  obedience  of  the  personal  will.  The 
tendency  to  individualism  received  a  great  im- 
pulse from  "  the  Voluntary  Controversy "  in 
Scotland.  Originally,  this  discussion  turned  on 
the  point  of  pecuniary  support ;  should  churches 
be  sustained  and  ministers  paid  by  free-will 
offerings  or  by  endowments  and  public  money  ; 
but  the  word  Voluntary  gradually  insinuated 
itself  into  every  department  of  Church  life.  A 
Christian  Church  was  commonly  defined  as  "  a 
voluntary  association  of  believers  in  Christ  for 
mutual  edification  and  the  advancement  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God."  Other  aspects  of  the  Chris- 
tian fellowship  had  fallen  into  oblivion — the 
organic  piety  of  which  Dr.  Bushnell  made  so 
much  ;  the  membership  in  the  body  of  Christ 
which  is  prior  to  the  personal  profession ;  the 
limitation  of  the  right  to  multiply  small  com- 
munities by  regard  to  the  Catholic  oneness ; 
the  fact  that  Christian  social  obligations  are 
only  recognised,  not  constituted,  by  the  act  of 
the  individual.  The  whole  Christian  life  took 
on  a  tone  of  hardness  from  this  individualism. 


AND  ANGLICANS  187 

The  Evangelical  theology  was  rationalistic  ;  the 
lofty  mysticism,  which  is  the  charm  of  the 
seventeenth  centur}-  Puritan  doctrine,  was  lack- 
ing. Its  apologetic  was  ineffective,  as  apologetic 
in  wliicli  there  is  no  mystic  clement  must  ever 
be.  The  Atonement  became  a  scheme  for  over- 
coming governmental  difticulties  which  the  fact 
of  sin  had  introduced  ;  not  the  outflowing  of 
the  Heavenly  Father's  heart.  The  divine 
righteousness  was  defined  as  the  giving  to 
every  man  exactly  what  he  had  deserved  ;  and 
no  ingenuity  has  been  able  to  evolve  a  con- 
sistent doctrine  of  sacrifice  out  of  that.  The 
solidarity  of  man,  Christ's  Headship  of  the 
human  race,  not  figurative  or  forensic,  but  real, 
vital,  was  not  thought  of,  only  His  personal 
forgiveness  of  the  individual  penitent,  the  justi- 
fication of  the  individual  believer.  The  2'esti- 
monium  Spiritus  Sancti  became,  first,  a  doctrine 
of  personal  assurance  merely,  and  then  was 
seldom  preached  at  all.  Among  Congrega- 
tionalists  the  word  Sacrament  fell  into  disuse ; 
instead,  persons  spoke  of  ordinances  ;  and  the 
very  conception  of  the  two  Christian  rites  was 
impoverished.  No  witness  to  organic  unity, 
in   nature   and   grace,  was  seen   in    baptism  ;  it 


1 8  8  CONGREGATION  ALISTS 

was  regarded,  almost  wholly,  as  a  confession 
of  personal  faith  or  a  dedication  of  children 
to  God.  The  Lord's  Supper  was  a  commemora- 
tion rather  than  a  communion  ;  and  the  com- 
memoration was  the  recalling  of  the  fact  and 
meaning  of  His  sacrificial  death  ;  the  higher, 
larger  truth  that  it  is  a  witness  to  His  per- 
petual bestowal  of  the  grace  of  His  glorified 
humanity  on  His  people  was  scarcely  appre- 
hended. 


The  first  impulse  to  a  more  generous  and 
Catholic  doctrine  of  the  Church  among  modern 
Conn-regationalists  came — so  I  at  least  believe 
— from  a  movement  which  they  regarded  with 
intense  suspicion  and  dislike ;  the  new  High 
Churchism,  which  was  identified  with  Oriel 
College,  Oxford,  and  which  culminated  in  the 
publication  of  the  "Tracts  for  the  Times."  Dr. 
Newman  has  told  us  in  his  Apologia  Pro  Vita 
Sua,  that  he  was  repelled  from  the  Evangeli- 
cism  in  which  he  had  been  brought  up  by  his 
fear  of  Liberalism  ;  and  by  Liberalism  he  means 
that  extreme  Lidividualism  which  1  have  been 
describing.     Newman  lias  had  no  direct,  aljiding 


AND  ANGLICANS  189 

influence  on  English  Nonconformity ;  it  was 
impossible  that  any  one  who  calls  the  light  of 
day  "garish,"  as  he  does  in  his  hymn,  "Lead, 
kindly  light,"  should  persuade  men  who  value 
"the  liberty  to  know,  to  utter,  and  to  argue 
freely  according  to  conscience,  above  all  liber- 
ties." They  felt  the  piety  of  his  temperament, 
and  the  charm  of  his  lucid  English  ;  but  they 
perceived  the  subtlety  of  that  apparently  clear 
style,  and  they  altogether  repudiated  his  doctrine 
of  economy  in  the  statement  of  truth.  His  use 
of  the  doctrine  of  development  repelled  them, 
because  it  was  development  Rome  ward ;  but 
they  saw  that,  both  in  the  history  of  the  Church 
and  in  the  promises  of  Christ,  develoj)ment  of 
Christian  truth  was  an  essential  part  of  God's 
spiritual  providence ;  and  they  sympathised 
with  his  ceaseless  demand  of  freedom  for  the 
Church  to  develop  according  to  its  own  law, 
unfettered  by  State  legislation  and  the  fancied 
necessities  of  worldly  societies.  W.  G.  Ward's 
**  Ideal  of  a  Christian  Church  "  is  full  of  passion- 
ate longings  for  ecclesiastical  autonomy ;  and 
Congregationalists  reawokc  to  the  perception 
that,  in  their  own  churches,  the  autonomy,  the 
liberty  of  development,  under  the  guidance  of 


1 90  CONGREGATIONALISTS 

Christ's  Spirit,  existed  in  its  highest,  purest 
form.  They  saw,  too,  that  the  doctrine  of  de- 
velopment involved  the  continuity  and  identity 
of  the  Christian  consciousness ;  involved  the 
historic  Church,  not  to  be  confounded  with 
Rome,  or  England,  or  any  ecclesiastical  estab- 
lishment, but  also  not  to  be  dismissed  as  in- 
visil)le,  ideal  merely.  Under  the  influence  of 
this  thought,  too,  they  studied  their  own  system 
of  government ;  and  they  saw  that  Congrega- 
tionalism provided  for  Catholicity,  as  well  as  for 
autonomy,  in  its  highest,  purest  form. 

Such  were  the  conceptions  taking  form  in 
the  minds  of  young  men  in  our  colleges  in 
the  middle  of  the  last  century  ;  many  of  the 
students  of  those  days  have  since  become  de- 
nominational leaders,  and  they  have  restored 
the  old  lofty  Separatist  doctrine  of  the  Churches 
and  the  Church.  A  few  of  them  have  lately 
called  themselves  High  Church  Congregationa- 
lists ;  a  title  I  do  not  love,  but  they  mean 
by  it,  that  they  have  a  doctrine  of  the  Church, 
as  clear,  consistent,  gracious  and  commanding, 
as  any  held  by  Romanist  or  Anglican.  Memory 
may  deceive  a  man  in  advancing  years,  and  I 
would  not   claim   absolute    historical   accuracy 


AND  ANGLICANS  191 

for  all  1  am  now  saying.  But  I  have  a  vivid 
impression  that,  while  I  often  heard  in  youth 
sermons  on  the  importance  of  the  Christian 
ministry,  I  seldom  heard  a  sermon  on  the 
Christian  Church  ;  and  when  I  did  so,  it  was 
the  meagre  presentation  of  a  voluntary  society, 
charged  -with  the  obligation  of  maintaining  its 
own  purity  of  communion,  while  its  members 
did  all  the  good  they  could.  Listening  to  a 
preaching  friar  in  Milan  C^athedral,  I  was  won 
by  the  passionate  fervour  with  which  he  spoke 
of  the  bark  of  St.  Peter,  and  dilated  on  the 
unity,  sanctity,  catholicity,  and  apostolicity  of 
the  Church.  I  thought  to  myself — "  We  too, 
we  Congregationalists,  have  a  doctrine  of  the 
Church,  which  we  hold  dear  as  God's  truth  ; 
how  is  it  that  w^e  leave  Romanists  and  Angli- 
cans to  preach  on  this  theme  with  fervour? 
how  is  it  that  with  all  our  zeal  for  purity  and 
apostolicity  we  do  not  make  our  congregations 
glow  as  we  discourse  on  unity  and  catholicity  ? " 
That  hour  in  Milan  Cathedral  has  affected  my 
whole  ministry ;  and  I  found  that  many  of 
my  contemporaries  were  passing  through  a 
similar  experience.  Apostolicity — we  follow 
the  model  laid  down  by  the  Apostles  ;  sanctity 


1 92  CONGREGATIONALISTS 

— we  seek  it  in  assemblies  of  holy  men  antl 
women ;  unity— the  Christian  consciousness  is 
the  same  and  constitutes  one  spiritual  commu- 
nity of  believers  in  every  age ;  catholicity — we 
value  the  separate  fellowship  of  believers  because 
we  want  no  organisation  between  them  and  the 
whole  family  in  earth  and  heaven,  and  will 
not  substitute  for  that  communion  the  meaner 
figure  of  a  big  institution. 

When  the  Congregationalist  of  to-day  turns 
back  to  the  early  Separatist  writings,  he 
discovers  that  he  has  more  in  common  with 
Browne  and  Barrowe,  and  Jacob  and  Ainsworth, 
and  Robinson,  than  with  the  Individualists  of 
the  first  half  of  his  own  century.  With  the 
older  men  as  with  him,  the  Church  comes 
first,  the  individual  member  second.  The  dif- 
ference is  not  great  in  the  particular  truths  ; 
it  is  great  in  the  proportion  and  relative  inci- 
dence of  the  truths.  It  w^ould  be  easy  to 
multiply  quotations ;  I  will  content  myself 
with  two  or  three  from  Robert  Browne.  "  The 
Church  planted  or  formed  is  a  company  or 
number  of  Christians  or  believers,  which,  by  a 
willing  covenant  made  with  their  God,  are 
under  the  government  of  God  and  Christ,  and 


AND  ANGLICANS  193 

keep  his  laws  in  one  holy  communion."  ''The 
Church  government  is  the  Lordship  of  Christ 
in  the  communion  of  his  offices ;  whereby  his 
people  obey  to  his  will  and  have  mutual  use 
of  their  graces  and  callings,  to  i'urther  their 
godliness  and  welfare."  This  is  much  better 
than  the  nineteenth  Article  of  the  Church  of 
England — "  The  visible  church  of  Christ  is  a 
congregation  of  faithful  men,  in  the  which  the 
pure  AVord  of  God  is  preached,  and  the  Sacra- 
ments be  duly  ministered  according  to  Christ's 
ordinance  in  all  those  things  that  of  necessity 
are  requisite  to  the  same " — because  it  lays 
stress,  not  on  order,  but  on  the  living  Lordship 
of  Christ,  and  on  the  communion  of  offices, 
"  whereby  his  people  have  mutual  use  of  their 
graces  and  callings."  It  is  also  better  than 
the  prevailinij^  definition  anion ij;  Cono;reo;ationa- 
lists  sixty  years  ago,  the  "  Voluntary  associa- 
tion "  definition,  because  it  makes  the  covenant 
with  God  the  voluntary  act ;  where  the  will 
has  been  yielded  to  God,  the  association  is  of 
spiritual  inevitableness  rather  than  of  personal 
determination.  Browne,  moreover,  s])eaks  of 
the  Church— and  he  means  the  particulaf,  not 
merelv  the  ideal,  universal   Chuich — as  havinc 

N 


1 94  CONGREGATIONALISTS 

"  the  commuiiiou  of   those  graces    aud   offices, 
which  are  in  Christ ;  "  "it  hath  the  use  of  his 
priesthoode,    because    he   is    the    High    Priest 
thereof.     Also  of  his  prophecie,  because  he  is 
the  Prophet  thereof;  also  of  his  kingdome  and 
government,  because  he  is  the  Kynge  and  Lorde 
thereof."     He  speaks  of  Christ   as  using    "the 
obedience  of  his  people"  for  the  fulfilment  of 
these  offices  ;  and  goes  on  to  indicate  how  all 
Christians  are  made  Kinges  and  Priestes.      We 
are  Kings   because   "  we  must  all  watch  each 
other,  and  trie  out   all  wickedness  ; "   "  Chris- 
tians  are   Priestes   unto    Christ,    because   they 
present   and   offer   up   praiers    unto    God,    for 
themselves  and  for   others.     They  turn   others 
from  iniquitie,  so  that  atonement   is  made  in 
Christ  unto  justification.       In   them  also  and 
for  them    others   are   sanctified,   by   partaking 
the  graces  of  Christ  unto  them."     This  is  very 
different    from    the    conception     of    Christian 
Kingship    as    self-control,    and    of    priesthood 
as  the   right   of    every    man    to    say    his    own 
prayers. 


AND  ANGLICANS  195 

VI 

The  Tractariaii  revolt  against  Protestantism 
was  followed  at  once  by  a  counter  movement — ■ 
the  rise  of  the  Broad  Church  School,  which, 
during  the  middle  third  of  the  century,  power- 
fully affected  English  thinking  on  religious  and 
social  subjects.  One  of  its  first  teachers  was 
Dr.  Arnold,  who  did  not  materially  modify 
Congregational  thought ;  a  little  later  came  the 
prophet  of  the  movement,  Frederick  Denison 
Maurice,  who  did.  Maurice  was  a  child  of  the 
eighteenth  century  Presbyterianism  ;  his  father 
was  a  typical  Unitarian,  having  so  large  a  re- 
gard for  liberty  of  conscience  that  he  did  not 
try  to  impress  his  own  theological  beliefs  on 
his  children,  combined  witli  an  intensity  of 
personal  conviction  that  saddened  his  later 
years  when  his  family  left  him  alone  in  his 
religion.  His  three  eldest  daughters  became 
Calvinists,  as  did  his  wife.  "  In  one  of  her 
letters  to  her  husband,"  Frederick  Maurice's 
son  and  biographer  has  written,  "  she  announces 
her  conviction  that  '  Calvinism  is  true.'  The 
contrast  to  the  form  in  which  her  daughters 
announced    their    adhesion    to    the    sect    which 


1 96  CONGREGATION  ALISTS 

they  joined  is  very  remarkable.  For  the  very 
essence  of  Calvinism  in  the  sense  of  her  letter 
is  this  :  That  it  assumes  the  existence  in  the 
world  of  a  select  body  who  are  known  as  '  the 
elect ' ;  and  assumes  further  that  every  one  in 
the  world  can  determine  in  his  own  mind 
whether  or  no  he  possesses  a  certain  testamur 
which  is  called  '  faith,'  by  which  he  can  decide 
whether  or  no  he  belongs  to  that  select  body. 
Now,  on  the  one  hand,  each  of  the  sisters  quite 
willingly  gave  the  accredited  proofs  of  their 
possessing  the  testamur  in  question,  and  on 
the  other,  Mrs.  Maurice  never  satisfied  herself 
that  she  could  do  so,  though  looking  at  the 
matter  from  the  outside  she  quite  believed  that 
this  view  of  the  universe  was  the  correct  one." 
The  biographer  adds  :  "  It  is  scarcely  too  much 
to  say  that  such  a  position  is  a  contradiction  in 
terms."  This  comment  would  not  have  been 
written  by  any  one  who  had  a  large  acquaint- 
ance with  English  Puritan  biography,  in  which 
the  want  of  this  personal  assurance  on  the  part 
of  those  who  were  most  deeply  persuaded  of 
the  truth  of  the  system  is  a  constant  and 
pathetic  feature ;  or  with  the  rise  of  anti- 
Calviaistic    Methodism,    which    gives   j^ersonal 


AND  ANdLICANS  197 

assurance  a  prevalence  wliich  it  lacked  in 
English  Calvinism.  But  there  is  little  doubt 
that  the  biographer  had  learnt  what  he  wrote 
on  this  sul)ject  from  his  father.  The  difference 
between  tlie  daughters  and  the  mother  seems 
to  have  been  mainly  a  matter  of  temperament. 
"  The  intense  individuality  of  each  of  their 
characters "  —  I  am  again  quoting  from  the 
biography — "  the  dramatic  distinctness  of  the 
personality  of  each  of  these  three  sisters,  is  to 
be  noted  also  of  every  separate  member  of  the 
whole  family.  Ft  is  the  one  sure  mark  of  the 
race  that  seems  to  have  been  noticed  by  all 
who  knew  them.  It  gave  to  their  peculiarities 
of  religious  conviction  an  earnestness  and  a 
certain  aggressiveness  which,  despite  their 
general  agreement  on  the  main  point  of  Cal- 
vinism, showed  itself  in  the  discussions  with 
one  another,  not  always  in  an  attractive  form." 
Under  these  incidents  of  his  home  life,  the 
elder  Maurice  himself  revealed  the  intensity 
of  his  character,  and  questioned  whether  he 
had  been  a  wise  and  faithful  father  in  leaving 
his  children  so  much  as  he  had  done  to  the 
religious  guidance  of  others. 

Frederick   Maurice's   boyhood  was   passed   in 


r  98  CONGREGATION  ALTSTS 

this  atmospliere  of  religious  controversy,  and 
it  determined  the  sentiment  of  his  life.  "  The 
desire  for  Unity''  he  says,  "has  haunted  me 
all  my  life  through  ;  I  have  never  been  able 
to  substitute  any  desire  for  that,  or  to  accept 
any  of  the  different  schemes  for  satisfying  it 
which  men  have  devised."  And  his  son  thus 
interprets  the  sentence  :  "  In  other  words,  the 
great  wish  in  the  boy's  heart  was  to  reconcile 
those  various  earnest  faiths  which  the  house- 
hold presented."  To  this  "desire  for  Unity" 
Frederick  Maurice  attributes  his  becominsj  a 
member  of  the  Church  of  England.  "  I  not 
only  believe  in  the  Trinity  in  Unity,  but  I 
find  in  it  the  centre  of  my  beliefs,  the  rest  of 
my  spirit  when  1  contemplate  myself  and 
mankind.  But  strange  as  it  may  seem,  I  owe 
the  depth  of  this  belief  in  a  great  measure  to 
my  training  in  my  home.  The  very  name  that 
was  used  to  describe  the  denial  of  this  doctrine 
is  the  one  which  most  expresses  to  me  the  end 
that  I  have  been  compelled,  even  in  spite  of 
myself,  to  seek."  This  is  a  very  significant 
utterance ;  the  reconciliation  of  apparent  anti- 
nomies was  the  master  motive  of  his  life. 

It   is  just  here  that  we  see  the  secret  of  the 


AND  ANGLICANS  199 

iniiuence  which  Maurice  came,  afterward,  to  exer- 
cise on  young  Congregationalists.     It  was  not 
because  he  had  any  sympathy  with   them  ;  he 
displays  a  singular  want  of  appreciation  of  their 
position.     He  repudiated  their  demand  for  tlie 
rights  of  the  individual  conscience   interpreted 
by    the    individual    judgment  ;     and    he    was 
repelled  by  even   the  modified   form   in  which 
Evangelicals  spoke  of  personal  experience.     The 
controversy  between  him  and  men  like  Dr.  John 
Pye   Smith   and   Dr.    Wardlaw  has    a   bitterly 
intolerant  spirit,   from   which   Maurice,   in    his 
early  days,   was  not  free.      His  "  Kingdom  of 
Christ"  is  painful  reading,  alike  to  those  who 
love  him  and  to  those  who  love  Congregational- 
ism.    It   is  dogmatic,   one-sided  in   statement, 
perverse  in  temper.     In  later  years  the  harsh- 
ness became   softened,   but   the  intolerance  re- 
mained.       Under     the     influence     of    Thomas 
Erskine,    of   Linlathen,    he    learned    to    under- 
stand Calvinism  better ;    ])ut  his  narrow  judg- 
ment   of   the    Separatist    testimony   never    left 
liini.      Just   as    the    typical    Dissenter    of  that 
period    saw    everywhere    in    the    Bible    a    con- 
demnation of  the  identification  of  Church  and 
State,  so  Maurice  saw  in  it  from  first  to   Inst 


200  CONGREGATION  ALISTS 

a  condemnation  of  those  who  thought  that,  in 
Christian  fellowship,  the  godly  should  separate 
themselves  from  the  godless.  His  exegesis  is 
continually  turning  on  this  one  point ;  no 
litcralist  is  more  confident  in  his  quotation  of 
Scripture  than  is  this  broad-hearted  man  when 
he  reads  his  own  thought  into  the  stories  of 
Genesis,  the  Old  Testament  prophets,  and  the 
writings  of  the  Apostles ;  without  a  suspicion 
of  the  irreverence  of  the  practice,  he  will  ex- 
pand an  utterance  of  Christ  into  long  para- 
graphs of  controversial  matter,  contained  within 
inverted  commas,  as  if  Jesus  had  dictated  all 
that  Maurice  is  saying.  He  did  not  know  that 
many  young  Congregationalists  were  passing 
through  a  stage  of  sentiment  like  that  he  had 
experienced  in  youth,  were  tired  of  solitude  and 
sectarianism ;  it  surprised  him  to  learn  that 
they  read  his  waitings  for  the  sake  of  the  larger 
reaches  of  social,  national,  and  spiritual  fellow- 
ship which  he  was  opening  up  to  them,  and  for 
the  sake  of  these  could  bear  patiently  with  his 
severe  and  uncomprehending  censures  of  much 
which  they  held  dear. 

In    political    and    social    matters    there   were 
many    affinities,    and    even    some   co-operation. 


AND  ANGLICANS  201 

between  liim  and  the  Dissenters.  He,  like 
them,  was  a  Liberal  who  had  passed  beyond 
Whig  pedantry  and  the  Revolution  Settlement. 
They  like  him  advocated  the  extension  of  the 
Franchise  and  the  claims  of  the  workman. 
They  were  glad  that,  when  he  was  put  out 
from  his  Professorship  in  King's  College, 
London,  for  heresy,  he  was  free  to  become 
Principal  of  a  Working  Men's  College,  and 
they  gave  his  college  what  little  help  and 
large  sympathy  they  could.  Maurice  is  intro- 
duced, with  Thomas  Carlyle,  into  a  striking 
picture  called  "  Work,"  by  Ford  Madox  Brown, 
one  of  the  pre-Raphaelite  band  of  painters, 
the  two  great  thinkers  looking  sympathetically 
on  while  a  number  of  burly,  ruddy  bricklayers 
are  building  a  w^all.  He  worked  with  the  Con- 
gregationalists,  Edward  White  and  lildward 
Miall,  to  secure  a  conference  between  repre- 
sentative artisans  and  Christian  ministers  of 
all  denominations  for  the  discussion  of  the 
question  :  "  Why  do  not  working  men  come  to 
( 'liurcli  ?  "  The  occasions  of  our  meeting  with 
him  tlius  were  very  rare,  and  our  intercourse 
rigidly  restricted,  but  we  had  him  to  ourselves 
in  the  study  ;  and   it  was  in  his  theok)gi('al  ami 


2  o  2  CONGREGATION  ALISTS 

pliilosophical  writings  that  bis  true  force  was 
found.  The  risjour  of  individualistic  reasoninor 
was  loosened  when  he  told  us  that  personality 
without  society  was  an  impossibility  to  thought ; 
that  the  obliojation  of  social  unitv  was  not 
left  to  our  choice,  but  was  a  necessity  of  our 
very  being ;  that  no  man  could  exist,  save 
as  a  member  of  a  family,  of  a  nation,  of  the 
race ;  that  deep  below  the  judgments  of  the 
individual  mind  there  w\as  in  every  one  of  us 
the  common  reason,  the  conscience  of  man- 
kind, and  that  the  training  of  history  had  been 
at  work  upon  us  before  we  began  consciously 
to  be. 

To  Maurice  is  owing  the  conception  of  Christ's 
Headship  of  the  human  race,  which  has  given 
modern  English  Congregationalists  a  firmer 
grasp  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Atonement,  and 
enriched  their  sense  of  Baptism  and  the  Lord's 
Supper.  Dr.  Dale  devotes  the  tenth  chapter 
of  his  Congregational  Union  Lecture  to  this 
subject,  and  he  speaks  of  the  "great  energy" 
with  which  it  has  been  insisted  on  by  Mr. 
Maurice  and  his  disciples.  Dale  used  to  affirm 
that  he  had  not  learnt  this  from  Maurice ;  and 
the    two   men   do   not    hold   it  in    exactly  the 


AND  ANGLICANS  203 

same  way.  Maurice  speaks  of  Christ  as  the 
Root  and  Head  of  humanity,  the  words  seem- 
ing to  ])e  borrowed  from  the  passage  in  the 
Apocalypse — "  I  am  the  root  and  offspring  of 
David  ;  "  the  liistorical  manifestation  ])eing 
founded  on  a  primal  relation  ;  and  it  is  quite 
consonant  with  his  mystic  habit  that  he  treats 
it  almost  as  a  truth  of  intuition.  With  Dale  it 
is — as  was  the  doctrine  of  Imputed  Righteous- 
ness with  older  theologians— a  necessary  factor 
in  the  general  scheme  of  the  Atonement ;  and 
he  deduces  it  from  the  personal  experience  of 
the  Apostles.  Moreover,  Dale,  while  speaking 
of  Christ's  Headship  of  the  human  race,  does 
not  apply  it  to  any  fact  in  human  history 
except  the  redemption  of  the  race  by  Christ ; 
he  rejoices  to  recognise  the  solidarity  of  Christ 
and  His  believing  people,  and  the  solidarity  of 
tlie  Churcli  ;  but  he  does  not  speak  of  tlie  solida- 
rity of  mankind.  Maurice  sees  solidarity  every- 
where: in  the  family,  in  the  nation,  in  humanity. 
And  Maurice's  teaching  is  needed  to  supplement 
Dale's.  The  value  of  Dale's  "  Lectures  on  the 
Atonement"  was  h'lt  in  its  strenuous  assertion 
of  the  fact  that  tlie  self-offering  of  ( 'hiist,  was 
an  objective  ground  of  justification,  not  simj)ly 


2  04  CONGREGATIONALISTS 

the  incentive  and  example  of  sanctification  ; 
and  this  we  received  all  the  more  gladly  be- 
cause we  had  already  learnt  the  responsibility 
of  men  as  members  of  the  race,  as  well  as 
individuals,  from  Maurice's  *'  Sermons  on 
Sacrifice." 

It  is  impossil)le  to  classify  Maurice.  A  hater 
of  "  individualism,"  he  never  lost,  nor  desired 
to  lose,  the  individuality  of  his  early  training. 
His  "  soul  was  like  a  star  and  dwelt  apart." 
He  was  one  with  his  teacher  Coleridge  and  his 
disciple  Kingsley  in  hostility  to  the  dominant 
Nominalism  of  the  time ;  but  he  was  ensnared 
by  the  idola  nominum,  and  often  confounded  his 
own  empirical  generalisations  with  the  Divine 
ideas.  Like  Newman,  he  had  a  picturesque  and 
apparently  lucid  style,  but  it  was  obscure 
through  the  affluent  connotation  of  his  words  ; 
he  was  not  suspected,  as  Kingsley  suspected 
Newman,  of  usinor  lanG;ua2;e  to  insinuate  other, 
and  farther-reaching,  conclusions  than  those  he 
was  professedly  enforcing.  His  charm  lay, 
first,  in  the  lofty  reach  of  his  thinking ;  enforced 
as  this  was  by  his  transparent  purity  of  purpose 
and  his  deep  devoutness.  The  delight  of  his 
guidancii    made    you    tolerate    the    absence    of 


AND  ANGLICANS  205 

cogency  in  much  of  his  reasoning.  He  lived  as 
seeing  the  invisible  ;  when  he  read  the  Liturgy, 
men  prayed ;  and  as  he  preached,  they  listened 
to  one  who  had  "  heard  unspeakable  things, 
which  it  is  not  for  a  man  to  utter."  Worldly 
men  were  impatient  with  him  ;  the  drift  of  his 
teaching  was  suspected  by  "  persons  of  import- 
ance," and  he  never  had  church  preferment. 
But  they  who  do  not  care  supremely,  either  for 
persons  of  importance  or  for  the  man  in  the 
street,  felt  the  power  of  a  spiritual  presence  in 
even  his  lightest  speech  ;  Church  authorities 
might  try  to  ban  him,  the  physicians  of  Guy's 
Hospital,  the  lawyers  of  Lincoln's  hm,  and 
the  working  men  of  the  College  in  Red  Lion 
Square,  found  him  neither  unintelligible  nor 
unsafe.  He  forced  men  to  reflect ;  and  the 
truth  they  reflected  on  was  precious.  You 
learnt  from  him  even  if  you  differed  from 
him  ;  when  you  agreed  with  him  you  felt  your 
position  the  more  secure.  There  is  nothing  in 
Christian  biography  more  pathetic  than  the 
story  of  how  he  went  "sounding  on  his  dim 
and  perilous  way,"  nothing  more  beautiful  than 
the  story  of  liis  death.  "  He  began  talking 
very  rapidly,  })ut  very  indistinctly.     We  made 


2o6  CONG  REG ATIONALTSTS 

out  that  it  was  about  the  Communion  being 
for  all  nations  and  peoples,  for  men  who  were 
working  like  Dr.  Radcliffe.  Something,  too, 
we  understood  about  its  being  women's  work 
to  teach  men  its  meanino;.  Once  Dr.  Radcliffe 
said,  '  Speak  slowly.'  He  said  quickly,  '  You 
do  not  want  me  to  speak.'  Dr.  Radclifie  said, 
'  0,  tell  us  all  you  can  ! '  He  went  on  speak- 
ing, but  more  and  more  indistinctly,  till  sud- 
denly he  seemed  to  make  a  great  effort  to 
gather  himself  up,  and  after  a  pause  he  said 
slowly  and  distinctly,  '  The  knowledge  of  the 
love  of  God — the  ])lessing  of  God  Almighty, 
the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  be 
amongst  you,  amongst  us — and  remain  with 
us  for  ever.'  He  never  spoke  again.  In  one 
instant  all  consciousness  was  gone,  and  when 
I  looked  up  and  called  him,  he  did  not  know 
me. 

The  time  has  not  yet  come  to  estimate  the 
effect  of  Maurice  on  the  religious  and  social 
thinking  of  the  century.  I  often  suspect  that 
when  it  can  be  appraised,  it  will  be  seen  that 
his  abiding  influence  has  been,  not  on  English 
Churchmen,  but  on  English  Congregationalists. 


AND  ANGLICANS  207 

VII 

During  the  whole  of  the  iiiiieteeiith  century 
there  have  been  endeavours  made  to  bring  the 
Congregational  Churches  of  England  together 
for  spiritual  fellowship  and  consultation  on 
practical  matters,  for  united  action  in  national 
questions,  and  for  evangelistic  work  at  home 
and  abroad.  The  Separatists  and  the  inde- 
pendents of  the  Commonwealth  wrote  in  favour 
of  Synods  or  Councils.  These  diftered  from 
the  Presbyterian  Synods  in  three  particulars  : 
they  were  occasional,  not  permanent  assemblies  ; 
they  did  not  represent  all  the  churches  of  a 
locality,  but  only  those  taking  part  in  them  ;  and 
they  assumed  no  authority  over  other  churches 
or  even  over  those  sendinjjj  delesfates  to  them. 
Their  sphere  and  function  are  defined  in  Article 
XXVI.  of  the  Declaration  of  Order,  adopted 
in  the  meeting  at  the  Savoy,  October  12,  1658  : 
"  In  cases  of  Difficulties  or  Differences,  either  in 
point  of  Doctrine  or  in  Administrations,  wherein 
either  the  Churches  in  general  are  concerned, 
or  any  one  Church  in  their  Peace,  Union,  and 
Edification,  or  any  Member  or  Mem])ers  of  any 
Church  are  injured  in,  or  by  any  proceeding  in 


2o8  CONGREGATIONALISTS 

Censures,  not  agreeable  to  Truth  and  Order  :  it 
is  according  to  the  mind  of  Christ,  that  many- 
Churches  holding  communion  together,  do  by 
their  Messengers  meet  in  a  Synod  or  Councel, 
to  consider  and  give  their  advice  in,  or  about 
that  matter  in  difference,  to  be  reported  to  all 
the  Churches  concerned  ;  Howbeit  these  Synods 
so  assembled  are  not  entrusted  with  any  Church- 
Power,  properly  so  called,  or  with  any  Juris- 
diction over  the  Churches  themselves,  to  exercise 
any  Censures,  either  over  any  Churches  or  Per- 
sons, or  to  impose  their  determinations  on  the 
Churches  or  Officers." 

We  have  not  held  such  synods ;  the  absence 
of  the  Advisory  Council  differentiates  English 
from  American  Congregationalists.  The  weari- 
ness  of  ecclesiastical  debate  which  characterised 
the  eighteenth  century  in  England  generally 
had  much  to  do  with  this.  There  was  also 
a  fear  that  even  the  most  carefully  guarded 
councils  would  gradually  encroach  on  the  inde- 
pendency of  the  Churches.  The  religious  needs 
of  the  population  at  large  have,  however,  so 
pressed  upon  our  consciences  and  our  hearts 
that  even  suspicion  of  dangers  to  Congrega- 
tional liberty  has  given  way.     Local  meetings 


AND  ANGLICANS  209 

of  ministers  led  to  the  formation  of  County 
Unions  of  Churches  for  the  help  of  necessitous 
congregations  and  for  home  missionary  work. 
Out  of  these  grew  the  Congregational  Union 
of  England  and  Wales,  wliich  was  founded  in 
1 83  I.  It  was  at  first  attempted  to  make  this 
a  body  directly  representative  of  the  County 
Unions,  but  the  attempt  broke  down,  so  great 
was  the  fear  lest  the  Union  should  become  a 
court  of  higher  jurisdiction,  occupying  the  same 
relation  to  County  Unions  and  Churches  as 
the  Presbyterian  General  xissembly  sustains 
to  Synods  and  Presbyteries  and  Congregations. 
It  was  found  hurtful  to  the  peace  of  the  Union 
to  have  reports  of  the  various  Congregational 
Missionary  Societies  presented  to  it ;  our 
Home  Missionary  Society,  our  Colonial  Mission- 
ary Society,  our  Irish  Evangelical  Society  were 
severed  from  the  Union ;  we  would  not  even 
have  newspapers  and  magazines  as  official 
organs  of  the  Union.  The  Union  has  proved 
to  be  a  powerful  Congress ;  its  utterances  on 
public  questions  represent  the  mind  of  the 
denomination,  and  affect  public  thought.  Now 
it  is  this  suspicious  habit,  this  jealousy  of  in- 
trusion  on   the  freedom  of  the  Churches,  as  if 

0 


2 1  o  CONGREGATION  ALISTS 

they  were  unable  to  guard  it  for  themselves, 
which  has  broken  down.  The  religious  needs  of 
England  are  calling  for  united  action  as  well  as 
spiritual  communion  ;  and  it  is  thought  a  futile 
and  inconsequent  policy  for  the  Churches  to 
entrust  to  competing  religious  societies  powers 
which  they  deny  to  the  representatives  of  the 
Churches  gathered  in  National  Assembly.  The 
Congregational  Union  has  just  begun  to  con- 
sider the  question  of  organising  the  forces  of 
the  Churches.  That  question  will  bring  on  an- 
other— the  organisation  of  the  Churches  them- 
selves. The  demand  is  made  by  some  that  the 
Churches  should  consolidate  themselves  into  a 
great  National  Congregational  Church.  I  much 
question  the  wisdom  of  this  demand  ;  my  study 
of  our  whole  history,  primitive  and  modern, 
as  well  as  the  Congregational  habit,  makes  me 
hold  by  Article  VI.  of  the  Savoy  Declaration 
of  Order :  "  Besides  these  particular  Churches, 
there  is  not  instituted  by  Christ  any  Church 
more  extensive  or  Catholique  entrusted  with 
power  for  the  administration  of  his  Ordinances, 
or  the  execution  of  any  authority  in  his  name." 
But  I  am  heartily  at  one  with  those  who  be- 
lieve that  national   religious    needs    demand  a 


AND  ANGLICANS  2  i  i 

Natioual  Council  with  power  to  iuiiiiiiiister  its 
own  resolutions  ;  and  I  think  it  would  be  (juite 
within  our  wisdom  to  devise  a  scheme  which, 
while  rigidly  safeguarding  the  autonomy  of  the 
Churches  in  all  which  concerns  their  congrega- 
tional life,  should  also  make  the  Union  autono- 
mous  in   all   the   larojer   matters   committed   to 


its  charge. 


Congregationalism  has  felt  the  influence  of 
other  considerations  which  have  converted  the 
nation  from  an  exclusive  individualism  to  tlic 
doctrine  that  the  individual  is  subordinate  to 
the  society,  that  as  he  is  its  offspring  and 
its  beneficiary,  so  must  he  be  its  ministering 
servant,  its  sympathising  member,  suffering 
with  it,  rejoicing  with  it,  one  w^ith  it  to  live 
and  die.  The  needs  of  the  poor,  the  sorrows 
of  the  feeble,  the  disadvantage  of  the  weak 
have  made  us  see  that  competition  is  only  one 
of  the  laws,  a  very  rudimentary  law,  of  life. 
And  the  doctrine  of  evolution,  teaching  us  that 
tlie  iiidi\i(ln;il  is  as  a  w^ave — a  livino;  w^ave — 
rising  out  of  the  ocean — the  living  ocean — of 
organised  being,  sinking  ])ack  into  it,  not,  as 
we  believe,  to  lose  personality,  rather  perhaps 


2 1 2  CONGREG  ATIONALISTS 

to  add  to  his  own  consciousness  the  conscious- 
ness of  the  whole,  has  completely  changed,  for 
every  one  of  us,  the  attitude  and  element  of 
thought.  But  my  theme  in  these  Lectures  is 
specific — tlie  relation  of  our  Churclies  to  the 
Church  at  large  and  to  the  nation  ;  the  way  in 
which  Englisli  Congregationalists  have  come  to 
apprehend  the  problem  suggested  by  the  words 
of  Archbishop  Sandys  when  he  contrasts  the 
state  of  a  small  private  church  and  that  of  a 
great,  complex,  and  growing  nation. 


TJX  rURE   YI 

SEVENTEENTH    CENTURY    INDEPENDENTS 

AND   TWENTIETH   CENTURY 

CONGREGATIONALISTS 


Louis  (hi  ^Moulin — "  Conformity  of  the  Indepentlents  to 
the  Primitive  Christians" — Advantage  of  Small  Congrega- 
tions— Indejiendents  not  "  Lazy  Separatists  " — Orthodoxy 
of  Independents — Catholic  Temper  of  Indejicndents — Free- 
dom of  Method— Preference  of  the  Christian  Commonalty 
for  Congregationalism  —  Independency  unfavourable  to 
Heresy,  to  Spiritual  Tyranny,  to  Faction — Du  Moulin's 
Aiguments  have  Ceased  to  be  Relevant — Foresight  of  the 
Separatists — Romanism — Erastianism — Mr.  Arthur  Balfour 
— No  Freedom  in  Church  of  England — Pebt  of  Congrega- 
tionalists  to  Established  Church — "  Half- Way  Covenant" 
in  America — Congregationalism  an  Established  Church — 
No  "  Half- Way  "  Policy  in  England — Congregationalists  and 
Baptists — Modern  Concei;)tion  of  Catholicity — Necessity  of 
Denominational  Differences — History  of  the  Word  "  Tolera- 
tion "  —  Federation  of  the  Evangelical  Free;  Churches  — 
Denominational  Churches — Are  they  according  to  the  Will 
of  Christ? — Condition  of  the  People  of  England — Relation 
of  this  Question  to  Free  Church  Federation — Congrega- 
tionalism a  Receiver  as  well  as  a  Dispenser  of  Religious 
Impulse. 


LECTUllE  YI 

SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY   INDEPENDENTS 

AND   TWENTIETH    CENTURY 

CONGREGATIONALISTS 

On  the  4th  aiul  5tli  of  Octol)er  1680  Gilbert 
Burnet,  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  was  an  anxious 
visitor  in  the  chamber  of  a  dying  man,  in  the 
parish  of  St.  Paul's,  Covent  Garden.  The  dying 
man  was  Louis  du  Moulin,  son  of  the  renowned 
French  Protestant,  and  antagonist  of  Bossuet, 
Peter  du  Moulin,  Louis  had  settled  in  England 
as  a  physician.  Being  a  man  of  some  reading, 
he  was  appointed  Camden  Professor  of  History, 
in  Oxford,  in  place  of  Robert  Waring,  by  the 
E^arliamcntary  Committee  for  reforming  the 
University.  He  lost  his  Chair  at  the  Restora- 
tion, and  went  to  London,  where  he  resided 
for  the  rest  of  his  life,  watching  the  contro- 
versies of  the  time  with  much  zest,  and  occasion- 
ally joining   in   them.      He   was  not   a   peaceful 


2i6  INDEPENDENTS  AND 

man  ;  lie  had  been  brought  up  in  an  atmosphere 
of  controversy ;  he  knew  what  a  clever  arguer 
he  was,  and  his  writings  are  full  of  sharp 
personal  invective.  When  he  felt  his  end 
drawing  near,  he  sent  for  Dr.  Burnet,  who  re- 
minded him  of  his  bitterness,  and  urged  him 
to  make  amends.  Dr.  Burnet  himself  wrote  a 
paper  expressive  of  regret,  which  Du  Moulin 
adopted  as  his  own.  He  sent  conciliatory  mes- 
sages to  the  Dean  of  St.  Paul's  and  the  Dean  of 
Windsor.  He  also  asked  to  see  the  Rector  of 
his  parish,  Dean  Patrick,  The  Dean  supposed  he 
had  come  to  listen  to  a  retractation  of  opinions, 
and  Du  Moulin  only  withdrew  the  personal 
charges  he  had  made.  This  he  did  frankly  and 
fully,  signing  copies  of  confession  for  circulation 
after  his  death,  declaring  that  he  was  ready,  if 
need  were,  to  write  his  name  in  his  heart's 
blood.  He  died  sixteen  days  after,  and  Dean 
Patrick  committed  his  body  to  the  grave. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  same  year  there  was 
published  a  small  pamphlet  by  Louis  du  Moulin, 
entitled  "  The  Conformity  of  the  Discipline  and 
Government  of  the  Independents  to  that  of  the 
Ancient  Primitive  Christians."  It  is  a  clever 
pamphlet,  without   personality,    and  has   come 


CONGREGATIONALISTS  2 1 7 

down  to  us  unaffected  by  his  dying  expressions 
of  regret.  Bossuet,  in  a  work  written  against 
tlie  French  Protestants,  had  made  this  point 
— the  Consistorial  Government  of  a  National 
Church,  such  as  the  Calvinists  desire,  needs  in- 
fallibility to  be  safe  ;  and  the  Consistory,  so  far 
from  assuming  to  be  infallible,  rejects  the  idea 
of  Church  Infallibility  altogether.  The  English 
Independents,  Bossuet  added,  are  more  con- 
sistent than  you.  Louis  du  Moulin,  who  did 
not  love  the  English  Presbyterians,  saw  his 
opportunity,  and  wrote  his  book.  He  makes 
the  renowned  Bishop  of  Condom  a  defender  of 
Independency.  His  argument  is  that  the 
Independents,  undertaking  no  charge  more 
exacting  than  the  government  of  a  gathered 
Church,  do  not  need  infallibility ;  their  re- 
sponsibility is  within  the  compass  of  a  small 
fellowship  of  serious  Christians,  under  the 
guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  He  further  testi- 
fies that  the  English  Independents  were  ex- 
emplifying their  system  in  such  a  way  as  to  be 
examples  to  other  churches. 

Louis  was  not  an  Independent,  though 
Anthony  Wood  calls  him  so — "  a  fiery,  violent 
and  hot-headed    Independent,  a    cross    and  ill- 


2i8  INDEPENDENTS  AND 

tempered  man."  He  himself  tells  us  that  he  is 
a  member  of  the  French  Reformed  Church,  and 
declares  his  loyalty  to  the  communion  of  his 
birth.  But  he  was  much  interested  in  the 
London  Congregational  Churches,  and  greatly 
admired  Dr.  Owen,  whom  he  knew,  and  whose 
ministry  he  frequently  attended.  Because  he  is 
not  an  Englishman,  because  he  is  not  an  Inde- 
pendent, and  because  he  is  a  physician,  he  claims 
to  be  a  singularly  unprejudiced  witness.  He 
has  somewhat  overrated  his  impartiality  ;  but 
his  book  is  full  of  curious  first-hand  knowledge. 
It  is  a  contemporary  record,  by  an  outsider  not 
predisposed  to  admiration,  of  the  life  of  the 
Independent  Churches  as  they  were,  under  the 
later  toleration  of  Charles  II.  Those  who  do 
not  appreciate  his  arguments  may  listen  to  his 
evidence  ;  especially  as  his  narrative  is  vivid, 
and  charged  with  the  feeling  of  the  time  and 
place  he  is  dealing  with. 

He  shews  us,  for  instance,  the  small  congrega- 
tions which  scholarly  and  venerable  men  like 
Dr.  Owen  found  a  sufiicient  sphere  for  the 
exercise  of  their  great  powers.  The  pastors  of 
Independent  Churches  have  congregations  of 
not,  "  at  the  most,  above  two  hundred  persons," 


CONGREGATIONALISTS  2 1 9 

and  they  are  "  eased  and  helped  by  their 
coadjutors  in  the  work  of  the  holy  ministry." 
He  declares  small  congregations  to  be  more  in 
harmony  with  Primitive  times  than  the  large 
parish  assemblies  in  which  the  popular  'Presby- 
terian preachers  of  the  Commonwealth  had 
delighted.  The  fruit  of  such  preaching,  he  says, 
"  was  like  to  that  of  which  S.  Chrisostome 
speaks  in  one  of  his  homilies,  which  resembles 
the  water  that  is  thrown  in  Buckets  upon  a 
great  number  of  Bottles,  which  have  a  strait 
neck,  and  where  there  goes  in  but  a  few  drops, 
whereas  the  fruit  of  the  exhortations  which  are 
made  in  private  to  a  few,  is  the  effect  of  him, 
who  having  taken  the  bottles,  will  fill  them  by 
degrees,  one  after  another." 

He  vindicates  the  ministers  from  the  charge 
of  being  "  lazy  Separatists,"  so  swallowed  up  in 
small  congregational  cares  as  to  have  lost  the 
sense  of  responsibility  for  a  public  ministry. 
"As  to  the  objection  that  is  made  against  them, 
that  in  case  there  should  be  no  other  ecclesi- 
astical establishment  in  a  kingdom  than  theirs, 
the  three-fourths  of  the  Inhabitants  would  live 
in  great  negligence,  and  in  gross  ignorance  of 
Religion.     To  that  they  say,  that  their  way  does 


2  20  INDEPENDENTS  AND 

not  exempt  Pastors  from  attending  upon  the 
office  of  their  ministry,  at  all  times  and  places, 
both  within  and  without  their  particular  Con- 
gregations, and  to  take  the  same  pains  as  the 
Presbyterian  ministers  do,  for  what  respects  the 
preaching  of  the  Word  in  the  most  Publick 
places." 

He  has  a  French  Protestant's  delight  in 
Calvinistic  doctrinal  orthodoxy,  and  affirms  that 
the  Savoy  Declaration  of  Faith  is  superior  to  the 
Westminster  Confession,  on  which  it  is  founded  ; 
stands,  indeed,  at  the  very  top  of  the  Protestant 
symbols  for  soundness  and  clearness  of  doc- 
trinal testimony. 

He  bears  witness  to  the  Catholicity  of  temper 
in  the  Independents.  "  'Tis  very  rarely  seen 
that  any  one  of  the  congregation  does  not  love 
all  good  men  of  what  Communion  soever  the}^ 
be,  and  that  they  do  not  speak  of  them  as  of 
the  true  Churches  of  Jesus  Christ."  Their 
separation,  he  says,  "is  not  an  absolute  and 
entire  abandoning  of  the  profession  of  the 
doctrine  and  life  of  those  who  follow  the  Re- 
ligion of  their  Country  ;  but  of  those  who  con- 
demn that  carriage,  that  doctrine  and  discipline, 
which  retained  the  most  of  the  Apostolical." 


CONGREGATIONALISTS 


22  I 


He  affirms  their  indifference  to  uniformity  of 
discipline  in  their  several  churches.  There 
were  persons  then,  as  there  are  persons  now, 
doubting  if  there  can  be  union  without  rigid 
system,  and  curiously  asking:  "What  is  the 
Order  practised  among  the  Independents  ? " 
Du  Moulin  replies  :  "As  they  profess  a  perfect 
harmony  among  themselves ;  so  likewise  they 
do  not  believe  this  same  absolute  necessity  as 
to  that  which  concerns  discipline.  Their  order 
is  to  do  all  things  decently  and  in  order."  He 
refers  on  this  point  to  Article  VHI.  of  the 
Savoy  Declaration  of  Order.  ^ 

He  testifies  to  the  decided  preference  of  the 
Christian  commonalty  for  a  free  Congregational 
method  over  a  rigid  Presbyterian  government. 
He  refers  to  the  hostility  of  the  people  of 
Geneva  to  Calvin's  rule  ;  and  says  that  it  has 
been  seen  in  England  for  the  last  forty  years 


1  "The  Members  of  these  Churches  are  Saints  Ijy  Calling, 
visibly  manifesting  and  evidencing  (in  and  by  their  profession 
and  walking)  their  obedience  unto  that  Call  of  Christ,  who 
being  further  known  to  each  other  by  their  confession  of  the 
Faith  wrought  in  them  by  the  power  of  God,  declared  by  them- 
selves or  otherwise  manifested,  do  willingly  consent  to  walk 
together  according  to  the  appointment  of  Christ,  giving  uj) 
themselves  to  the  Lord,  and  to  one  another  by  the  will  of 
God  in  professed  subjection  to  the  Ordinances  of  the  Gospel." 


2  22  INDEPENDENTS  AND 

that  the  people  have  had  a  greater  inclination 
to  the  Congregational  way  than  the  pastors. 
"  For  of  more  than  six-score  persons,  who  made 
up  the  Assembly  of  Ministers,  there  was  above 
a  hundred  of  them  for  the  Presbyterian  govern- 
ment, and  about  eight  or  ten  for  the  Con- 
gregational way,  and  two  only,  Coleman  and 
Lightfoot,  for  the  opinion  of  Erastus.  Yet, 
nevertheless,  when  it  came  to  the  execution  and 
practice,  there  was  not  one  of  ten  thousand 
people  that  would  submit  to  the  Presbyterian 
government.  And  one  of  them,  who  was  the 
most  eminent,  confessed  to  me,  that  being 
pastor  of  the  greatest  parish  in  London,  he 
was  never  able  to  establish  in  it  a  consistory, 
nor  find  any  that  would  be  of  it  but  a  pitiful 
Scotch  Taylor.  This  difficulty  was  not  seen 
as  to  the  Congregational  way,  for  whereas  only 
the  pastors  were  for  the  Presbyterian  way, 
there  were  proportionably,  as  many  people  as 
ministers,  who  joined  in  the  Assemblies  of  the 
Congregational  way.  Which  they  did  with 
more  heat  and  fervour  than  the  Parliament 
would  have  had  them  ;  insomuch  that  they  were 
forced  to  publish  a  Declaration,  by  which  they 
exhorted   the  people  to  put   off  the  gathering 


CONGREGATION  ALISTS  2  2  3 

of  Churches  till  the  Parliament  had  made  a  more 
public  regulation  thereof." 

He  declares  also  the  futility  of  the  policy  of 
conciliating  the  Roman  Catholics  of  England  to 
the  Establishment  by  truncating  the  Reforma- 
tion. The  nearness  of  affinity  of  the  two 
Churches  "  has  rather  sharpened  and  em- 
bittered the  spirits  and  tempers  of  those  of  [the 
Roman]  communion,  to  plot  against  the  sacred 
person  of  the  King,  and  against  his  govern- 
ment, than  it  has  any  ways  sweetened  them." 

Dilating  on  his  main  theme — the  dangers  of 
a  National  Church,  and  consistorial  government, 
where  there  is  no  infallibility — he  points  out, 
in  three  particular  examples,  the  comparative 
freedom  from  these  dangers  of  Independent  or 
Congregational  Churches. 

There  is  the  danger  of  Heresy.  If  a  national 
council  should  err,  he  says,  as  Church  councils 
have  erred  and  may  err,  the  mistake  becomes 
as  widespread  and  as  enduring  as  the  Church  ; 
but  it  is  impossible  that  a  number  of  Inde- 
pendent Churches  should  all  depart  from  the 
faith  together,  and  those  which  remain  true 
preserve  the  faith,  which  will  spread  from  them 
as  centres. 


2  24  INDEPENDENTS  AND 

There  is  the  danger  of  injustice  to  the  in- 
dividual member  of  the  Church.  Du  Moulin 
is  not  favourable  to  Excommunication,  and  he 
regrets  that  the  Independent  Churches  profess 
the  power  to  excommunicate.  But  he  points 
out  that  practically  their  excommunication  is 
only  the  withdrawal  of  the  Church  from  fellow- 
ship with  a  member ;  and  that  the  mischief 
of  excommunication  among  Independents  is 
very  small,  for  it  is  not  exclusion  from  a  large 
body,  covering  a  nation ;  but  only  from  a 
few  people. 

He  speaks  also  of  the  danger  to  the  State 
which  may  arise  from  the  hostile  action  of  a 
large  and  compact  National  Church  within  it 
— the  danger  of  the  imperium  in  imperio — 
and  affirms  that  the  nation  has  nothing  to  fear 
from  small  Independent  religious  societies. 
Their  power  of  mischief,  if  they  should  be 
disposed  to  faction,  is  at  most  only  local  and 
temporary ;  whereas  the  authority  of  a  great 
compact  spiritual  community  may  vie  with 
that  of  King  and  Parliament. 


CONGREGATION  ALISTS  2  2  5 


I  have  dwelt  somewhat  at  length  on  Du 
Moulin  and  his  little  pamphlet,  because,  for 
two  hundred  years,  his  arguments  were  employed 
by  Congregationalists.  He  had  learnt  them, 
probably,  from  Dr.  Owen  and  others ;  there  is 
not  one  of  them  which  I  have  not  heard,  again 
and  again,  on  Independent  platforms.  They  are 
arguments  which  have  influenced  the  thousfht 
of  the  nation.  Similar  pleas,  in  favour  of 
liberty  and  a  free  press,  used  to  be  employed  by 
Whig  politicians,  and  some  of  them  appear, 
with  a  slight  change  of  form,  in  John  Stuart 
Mill's  Treatise  on  Liberty.  We  do  not  often 
hear  them  now  ;  their  old-world  flavour  appears 
as  we  read  the  quotations.  They  have  not  lost 
their  cogency ;  given  circumstances  like  those 
under  which  they  were  formulated,  they  would 
awaken  the  old  interest  and  achieve  new  vic- 
tories. Their  relevancy  is  gone  because  they 
have  accomplished  their  work.  The  place  once 
held  by  them  as  commendations  of  the  Congre- 
gational polity  is  now  taken  by  appeals  to  the 
sentiment  of  catholicity  and  zeal  for  the  national 
efiiciency  of  the  Churches. 


2  26  INDEPENDENTS   AND 


II 


When  we  contemplate  the  whole  history  of 
the  Churches  in  England,  of  which  i  have  given 
you  a  few  detached,  but  typical,  instances,  we 
are  struck  with  the  foresight  of  the  Separatists. 
They  dreaded  two  things  :  the  recrudescence  of 
Roman  error,  and  the  Erastianism  of  the  National 
policy.  "  The  little  cross  in  the  Queen's  closet," 
which  Jewel  thought  of  ill  omen,  has  indeed 
been  drawn  into  a  precedent.  The  crucifix  is 
found  as  an  object  of  adoration  in  many  of  the 
parish  churches  ;  the  stations  of  our  Lord's  pas- 
sion are  on  the  pillars ;  the  worship  of  the 
mass  is  restored,  and  prayers  for  the  dead  are 
invited ;  the  practice  of  confession  troubles 
many  a  home  ;  the  Daily  Prayers  and  the  Litany 
are  mumbled,  so  that  the  English  service  is  no 
lonsjer  rendered  in  a  lano;uao;e  "  understauded 
of  the  people  "  ;  in  many  churches  it  would  be 
hard  for  an  ordinary  worshipper  to  know  if  he 
were  assisting  at  an  Anglican  or  a  Roman  service. 
The  very  name  Protestant  is  repudiated  ;  as  an 
instrument  of  the  Reformed  religion,  the  Estab- 
lished Church  has  conspicuously  failed.  "  There 
are  some  persons  calling  themselves  members  of 


CONGREGATIONALISTS  227 

the  Church  of  England,"  Mr.  F^)alfour  said,  in 
September  last,  to  a  Protestant  deputation, 
"  who  seem  to  me  to  differ  so  little  in  their 
doctrine  from  the  Church  of  Rome  that  their 
secession  from  the  Church  of  England  mig-ht 
perhaps  be  no  very  serious  loss  to  our  com- 
munion." 

At  the  same  time  Mr.  Balfour  acknowledged 
that  the  difficulty  of  applying  the  law  was  such 
that  those  persons  could  not  be  put  out  of  the 
Church  of  England.  We  may  add  that  there  is 
not  any  compelling  motive  for  them  to  secede. 
The  deputation  Mr.  Balfour  was  addressing  had 
asked  for  an  improved  method  of  enforcing  the 
law ;  and  he  told  them  "  there  is  a  vast  body  of 
opinion  in  the  Church — a  vast  body  of  High 
Church  opinion — which  has  a  perfect  right  to 
be  in  the  Church,  and  which  none  of  you  wish 
to  exclude  from  the  Church,  but  which  would 
be  profoundly  horrified,  or  might  be  profoundly 
horrified,  at  the  general  trend  and  tendency  of 
the  litigation  which  might  be  set  up  by  any 
great  change  of  the  law  such  as  you  propose." 
And  then  he  makes  this  striking  assertion  : 
"  There  is  apt  to  be  in  any  great  accession  of 
strength  to  merely  lay  and  legal  tribunals    an 


2  28  INDEPENDENTS  AND 

appearance  of  Erastianism — to  use  the  old- 
fashioned  phrase — an  appearance  of  making 
religious  doctrine  depend  merely  on  lawyers, 
judges,  and  advocates,  which  is  profoundly  re- 
pellent, I  think,  probably  to  every  man  in  this 
room,  and  is  certainly  profoundly  repellent  to 
the  great  Fathers  of  the  Reformation.  They  of 
all  men  in  the  world  would  have  objected  to 
seeing  the  living  Church  subjected  to  anything 
like  the  dead  hand  of  a  mere  technical  and  legal 
interpretation,  by  technical  lawyers,  of  printed 
or  written  documents.  And  thoug-h  the  law 
must  be  there,  though  the  law  must  be  efficient, 
it  would  be  a  great  disaster  for  the  Church,  a 
great  disaster  for  religion,  if  it  were  brought  in 
as  the  ordinary  day-by-day  method  of  preserv- 
ing discipline  in  the  Church,  as  the  ordinary 
machinery  of  Church  government."  ^ 

This  is  a  frank  and  manly  declaration  of  the 
straits  in  which  the  Protestant  party  in  the 
Church  of  England — the  overwhelming  majority 
of  the  Church  as  well  as  of  the  nation — is 
involved  because  of  the  Elizabethan  settlement, 

'  These  (quotations  have  not  had  Mr.  lialfour's  revision.  They 
are  taken  from  a  Report  in  the  Manchester  Guardian  of  October 
1st,  1900. 


CONGREGATION  ALISTS  229 

confirmed  by  the  Act  of  Uniformity.  Mr. 
Balfour's  declaration  rules  out  of  the  number 
of  the  "  great  Fathers  of  the  Reformation " 
Whitgift  and  Elizabeth's  Bishops ;  it  discredits 
Elizabeth  herself  and  her  statesmen  ;  for  they 
deliberately  laid  the  Church  of  England  on  an 
Erastian  foundation.  The  Church,  according 
to  Hooker,  is  the  nation  in  its  religious  aspect. 
Fellowship  with  the  Church  of  England  is  the 
legal  right  of  every  baptized  English  person  who 
has  not  been  excommunicated.  And  because 
excommunication  is  the  taking  away  of  a  legal 
right,  and  because  the  courts  of  law  would  be 
entitled,  on  appeal,  to  review  the  pleadings  and 
decide  the  case,  it  is  almost  never  resorted  to. 
Not  many  years  ago,  a  man  and  his  wife,  who 
had  been  repelled  from  the  communion  in  their 
parish  church,  on  grounds  of  patent  heresy, 
appealed  to  a  court  of  law,  and  the  incumbent 
was  ordered  to  admit  them.  There  are  hundreds 
of  English  clergymen  who  believe  that  another 
marriage  of  a  divorced  person,  during  the  life- 
time of  the  second  party,  is  contrary  to  the  law 
of  Christ ;  and  who  publish  that  they  will  not 
administer  the  communion  to  persons  so  married. 


3  30  INDEPENDENTS  AND 

But  they  could  not  help  themselves  ;  the  law 
would  compel  them. 

The  Church  of  England  has  no  right  of  revi- 
sion of  Canons,  or  of  adapting  its  constitution  to 
new  conditions  of  the  national  life ;  the  fear  of 
the  length  to  which  reform  would  go,  and  the 
direction  it  might  take,  is  too  great.  Convoca- 
tion cannot  meet  except  when  Parliament  is 
sitting,  and  by  summons  of  the  Crown.  What- 
ever the  state  of  business,  it  has  to  rise  when 
Parliament  is  prorogued.  No  Act  of  Convoca- 
tion is  valid  until  it  has  been  laid  before  Parlia- 
ment, and  received  the  sanction  of  the  Crown  ; 
and  so  Convocation  seldom  acts  at  all.  It 
confines  itself  to  questions  which  do  not  involve 
much  public  discussion. 

Of  course  all  this  is  shocking  to  the  con- 
science of  the  community  ;  it  is  so  shocking  that 
even  Nonconformists  refrain,  in  controversy, 
from  parading  the  facts.  The  Congregational 
doctrine  of  Church  membership — that  it  implies 
personal  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  purity 
of  life  ;  a  general  harmony  of  religious  sentiment 
between  each  member  and  the  Church  as  a  whole 
— has  leavened  the  nation.  "  The  appearance 
of  Erastianism,"  to    use    Mr.    Balfour's    words, 


CONGREGATIONALISTS  2  3 1 

"  is  profoundly  repellent "  to  nearly  every  one  ; 
and  tlie  Church  of  Eng-land  must  be  Erastian 
so  long  as  it  is  established. 


Ill 

Here  is  an  illustration  of  the  wise  foresight 
of  the  fathers  of  Eng-lish  ConOTesfationalism  in 
the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries.  But 
they  did  not  apprehend,  they  could  not  have 
foreseen,  how  the  existence  of  the  Establishment 
facilitated  their  working  out  of  their  own  doc- 
trines. They  attributed  the  purity  and  peace  of 
their  Churches  entirely  to  the  excellence  of  their 
own  method,  without  observing  how  the  opera- 
tion of  this  was  affected  by  the  coexistence  of 
other  Churches  with  different  traditions. 

The  most  important,  though  not  the  most 
conspicuous,  difference  between  English  and 
American  Congregation alists  results  from  the 
fact  that  the  Congregationalism  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  Connecticut,  which  settled  the 
type  of  American  Congregationalism,  was  the 
public  religious  profession  of  tliese  two  states, 
was,  in  fact,  until  far  into  the  nineteenth 
century,  a  State-established  Church. 


2  32  INDEPENDENTS    AND 

Dr.  George  Leon  Walker  has  described  one 
of  the  conditions  under  which  "  the  Half-way 
Covenant"  was  introduced  into  the  New  Eng- 
land Churches,  and  the  religious  declension 
which  was  its  consequence.  With  Thomas 
Hooker's  principle  that  "  Visible  Saints  are 
the  matter"  and  "confederation  the  form"  by 
which  only  a  true  church  can  be  constituted, 
"  was  associated  the  additional  doctrine  that 
the  children  of  confederated  saints  were  them- 
selves also  church-members  and  saints ;  and  of 
course  that  their  children  also  would  be  so  in 
their  turn.  This  did  well  enough  so  long  as 
the  children  of  the  first  covenanting  parents 
were  children,  and  the  question  of  their  saintli- 
ness  remained  a  hypothetical  matter.  But  how 
when  they  grew  up  to  manhood  and  woman- 
hood, and  were  consciously  and  visibly  no  saints 
at  all,  in  that  interior  and  self-scrutinising  sense 
which  was  generally  admitted  as  necessary  to 
eternal  life  ?     Where  did  such  people  stand  ? "  ^ 

This  difficulty  was  complicated  with  another. 
The  states  legislated  for  the  suppression  of  im- 

1  "Some  Aspects  of  the  Religious  Life  of  New  England," 
Carew  Lecture,  by  George  Leon  Walker,  D.D.  Silver,  Burdett 
&  Co.,  New  York,  1897.     P.  61. 


CONGREGATION  ALISTS  233 

moralities,  and  the  Congregational  Churches 
were  the  teachers  as  to  what  the  moral  life 
was ;  the  selectmen  were  directed  to  see  that 
families  were  provided  with  Bibles,  orthodox 
catechisms,  and  "  other  good  books  of  practical 
godliness,  viz.,  such  as  treat  on,  encourage 
and  duly  prepare  for  the  right  attendance  on 
that  great  duty,  the  Lord's  Supper."  ^ 

Association  with  a  Church  was  a  badge  of 
respectability,  even  after  it  ceased  to  be  essen- 
tial to  the  exercise  of  the  rights  of  citizenship  ; 
and  the  result  was  that  persons  whose  Church- 
membership  originally  involved  only  a  right  to 
baptism  for  their  children,  came  to  be  looked 
on  as  having  a  right  to  the  Lord's  Supper 
though  they  were  "  destitute  of  a  Saving  Work 
of  God's  Spirit  on  their  Hearts."  This  custom 
proved  so  injurious  to  the  Churches  and  to  the 
influence  of  religion  on  the  community  that,  as 
a  result  of  "  the  Great  Awakening,"  it  was 
swept  away. 

If  Congregationalism  had  been  in  England, 
as  it  was  in  America,  the  established,  or  the 
sole,   form    of   Church    Discipline ;    if  to   be  a 

1  Dunning's  "  Congregationalists  in  America."     New  York  : 
J.  A.  Hill  &  Co.     P.  238. 


2  34  INDEPENDENTS  AND 

Con2;reo;ational  Church  member  had  been  an 
essential  mark  of  a  respectable  citizen,  the 
question  would  have  presented  itself  in  a  far 
larger  and  more  complicated  form.  For  Eng- 
lish society  was  far  more  complex  than  American, 
having  greater  and  more  pronounced  varieties 
of  religious  tradition  and  habit. 

To  borrow  Dr.  Leon  Walker's  form  of  ques- 
tion, the  Independent  Churches  would  have 
had  to  ask  themselves  :  How  about  the  persons 
who  never  had  accepted  the  doctrine  of  purity 
of  fellowship,  to  whom  the  process  of  self- 
scrutinising  was  distasteful,  even  impossible, 
and  yet  to  whom  to  deny  the  name  Christian 
and  the  Christian  ordinances  would  have  been 
harsh,  or  even  impious  ?  How  about  the  many 
whose  consciousness  of  imperfection  made  the 
idea  of  a  strictly  personal  profession  painful, 
who  nevertheless  cherished  the  Christian  hope 
in  their  hearts,  and  loved  association  with  God's 
people  ?  How  about  the  many  more,  to  whom 
Christian  fellowship  and  the  communion  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  appeared  a  spiritual  discipline  ; 
a  means  of  guidance  into  that  full  faith  which 
the  consistent  Congregationalist  requires  as  the 
qualification  for  admission  to  Church  member- 


CONGRECtATIONALISTS  2  3  5 

ship  ?  And  how  about  the  many  more  whom 
not  even  the  judgment  of  charity  could  call 
Christian,  and  who  yet  might  be  irreparably 
injured  if  they  were  made  to  live  under  a 
constant  sense  of  reprobation  ? 

If  God  had  called  the  Congregational  Churches 
of  England  to  face  these  questions,  in  all  their 
complexity,  as  a  practical  problem,  I  believe 
that  in  His  infinite  mercy  He  would  have 
directed  them  to  an  answer.  But  is  it  cowardly 
in  me  to  be  glad  that  we  have  not  had  to 
answer  them  ?  Hard,  dogmatic  men  would 
have  had  no  hesitation  in  dealing  with  the 
problem ;  but  hard,  dogmatic  men  might  have 
lost  Eno-land  for  Christ. 

We  have  not  been  rigidly  uniform  in  our 
own  Congregational  practice.  The  same  Church 
has  been  sometimes  severe,  sometimes  gracious  ; 
but,  on  the  whole,  and  in  both  ways,  we  have 
been  consistent  in  the  doctrine,  and  faithful  in 
the  practice,  of  purity  of  communion.  And 
those  who  could  not  have  joined  with  us  have 
not  l)een  unchurched. 

There  have  been  ejradations  among:  the 
Churches,  from  Congregational  strictness  to 
the  laxity  of  the  Establishment ;  the  Puritans 


236  INDEPENDENTS  AND 

were  half-way  men  ;  the  Methodists  were  three- 
quarters  men,  with  an  increasing  tendency  to 
the  Con2:reo;ational  ideal.  Different  Churches 
have  represented  various  types  of  piety,  from 
the  intense  Independent  to  the  non-defining 
Erastian  ;  and  they  have  acted  and  reacted  on 
each  other,  in  great  public  movements,  in  social 
intercourse,  by  intermarriage,  and  the  birth  of 
grandchildren  combining  the  strains  ;  by  con- 
ference on  great  religious  questions,  by  reading 
each  other's  books,  by  loving  remembrance  of 
opponents  after  death,  and  fond  thoughts  of 
fuller  fellowship  in  "  the  all-reconciling  world." 
Of  each  type  there  have  been  faithful  pastors, 
gracious  souls  ;  in  all  the  Churches  children  have 
grown  up  sweetly  into  Christian  manhood  and 
womanhood  ;  and  men  of  the  world  have  felt 
the  touch  of  the  unseen,  and  repentant  sinners 
have  gazed  on  the  cross  with  their  closing  eyes. 
May  I  hazard  a  suggestion  here  ?  Is  the  fact 
that  we  have  had  no  "  Half-way  Covenant " 
in  English  Congregationalism  the  reason  why 
we  have  to-day  so  very  few  close  communion 
Baptists  ?  Those  children,  whose  needs  Dr. 
Leon  Walker  has  suggested  to  us,  loving  their 
parents  and  their  parents'  Christianity,  and  yet 


CONGREGATION  ALISTS  237 

not  prepared  to  make  their  parents'  confession, 
could  find  a  spiritual  home  elsewhere.  We 
have  always  regretted  losing  them,  ])ut  we  have 
not  been  obliged  to  alter  the  terms  of  com- 
munion to  retain  them.  There  has  been  very 
little  difference  between  the  practice  of  the 
Baptist  Churches  and  our  own  in  the  personal 
requirement  for  church-fellowship.  And  there- 
fore it  has  been  possible  for  Baptist  and  Paedo- 
Baptist  Congregationalists  to  come  into  very 
close  fellowship.  Not  only  do  we  receive  letters 
of  dismissal  from  each  other ;  in  most  of  our 
Churches  of  both  denominations  all  offices  in 
the  Church  are  open  to  Baptists  and  Psedo- 
Baptists  indiscriminately,  save  that,  by  our 
trust-deeds,  the  pastorate  is  restricted  to  the 
denomination  ;  in  some  newly  formed  Churches 
even  that  restriction  is  repudiated.  In  the 
county  of  Bedford  the  absolute  indifference 
of  John  Bunyan  and  his  Church  on  this  point 
has  been  followed,  and  the  County  Union  is 
an  association  of  Congregational  and  Baptist 
Churches.  By  the  constitution  of  the  Congre- 
gational Union  of  England  and  Wales,  Churches 
where  a  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  subjects 
and  mode  of  baptism  is  no  bar  to  membership 


238  INDEPENDENTS  AND 

or  office  may  send  representatives  to  be  mem- 
bers of  the  Assembly,  and  this  year  the  prin- 
cipal sessions  of  the  Baptist  and  Congregational 
Unions  have  been  united  meetings,  presided 
over  by  the  chairman  of  the  Congregational 
Union  and  the  President  of  the  Baptist  Union 
alternately. 

IV 

The  opening  of  the  twentieth  century  has 
witnessed  a  new  conception  of  catholicity,  and 
the  growth  of  it  illustrates  John  Robinson's 
dictum  that  "the  Lord  hath  yet  more  light  to 
break  forth  out  of  His  Holy  Word."  For  a 
lono;  time  Eno;lish  Dissenters  used  to  recall 
how  much  their  impulse  had  modified  other 
Churches,  and  their  thought  enlarged  the 
national  life.  Now  they  love  rather  to  record 
what  they  have  learned  from  each  other  and 
from  England.  Long  ago  they  knew  uni- 
formity in  doctrine  and  discipline  to  be  impos- 
sible ;  now  they  do  not  regard  it  as  desirable ; 
they  recognise  that  the  solitary  prevalence  of 
their  own  type  of  church  life  would  be  an 
impoverishment  rather  than  a  gain  to  national 
Christianity.     The  person  who  is  always  learn- 


CONGREGATION  ALISTS  2  3  9 

ing  from  his  fellow-clenominationalists  is  like 
one  who  studies  humanity  in  his  looking-glass 
— "  He  beholdeth  himself,  and  goeth  his  way, 
and  he  has  forgotten  even  what  manner  of 
man  he  himself  is."  The  "perfect;law  of  liberty" 
of  development  is  the  way  of  blessedness. 

The  Cono;reo'ational  Union  has  a  Lecture 
established  to  enable  leading  ministers  to  give 
deliverances  on  important  questions  of  Chris- 
tian doctrine,  discipline,  and  life.  I  desire 
that,  in  some  memorial  year,  the  Congrega- 
tional Union  Lecture  shall  take  a  broader  form. 
I  want  to  have  the  service  of  the  different 
denominations  to  the  common  religion  treated 
by  representative  men  of  the  different  com- 
munions, and  the  representative  man  should 
be  one  of  the  most  pronounced  denomina- 
tionalists,  not  one  of  the  least  so.  I  would 
have  Dr.  Rogers,  for  instance,  or  Dr.  Brown, 
tell  us  what  England  owes  to  the  Congre- 
gationalists ;  and  Dr.  MacLaren  or  Charles 
Williams  discourse  on  what  it  owes  to  the 
Baptists.  I  would  have  Dr.  Rigg  lecture  on 
John  AVesley,  and  Dr.  Dykes  on  Thomas  Cart- 
wright.  I  regret  that  Archbishop  Benson  is  no 
longer  here  to  tell  us  what  are  the  claims  on 


240  INDEPENDENTS  AND 

the  national  gratitude  of  his  predecessor  Laud. 
I  believe  such  a  course  of  Lectures  will  one 
day  be  delivered,  and  the  place  where  it  might 
most  fittingly  be  delivered  is  the  Memorial 
Hall. 

V 

In  recalling  the  story  of  the  efforts  after  in- 
corporate union  between  the  Congregationalists 
and  Presbyterians,  which  followed  the  accession 
to  the  throne  of  the  large  -  minded,  sound- 
hearted  William  the  Third ;  seeing  how  near 
they  again  and  again  came  to  being  one  Church, 
and  how  miserably  their  efforts  were  thwarted ; 
it  is  impossible  to  keep  down  our  regret. 
A  little  more  wisdom,  we  think,  a  little  more 
patience,  an  added  touch  of  mutual  considera- 
tion in  their  zeal,  would  have  saved  us  many 
a  year  of  strife  and  bitterness.  The  regret  is 
natural,  but  perhaps  it  is  not  wise.  The  differ- 
ences which  emerged  in  England  when  the 
Reformation  was  l)eing  worked  out  were  not 
fanciful,  not  the  outcome  of  perversity ;  they 
were  characteristic,  temperamental ;  each  varia- 
tion represented  an  important  truth.  It  is 
essential  to  such  speculations  on  the  polity  of 


CONGREGATIONALISTS  24 1 

life,  if  tliey  are  to  render  their  full  service  to  the 
Church  and  the  world,  that  they  should  have 
room  for  practical  development,  should  prove 
their  efficiency,  should  also  reveal  their  insuffi- 
ciency as  an  expression  of  the  whole.  Congre- 
gationalists  required  the  practice  of  separation 
to  shew  what  Christian  individualism  can  do  for 
Christendom.  Presbyterians  needed  liberty  of 
combination  to  display  the  directive,  efficient 
power  of  an  organised  Church.  The  national 
idea,  too,  required  to  have  full  expression,  that 
we  might  not  lose  the  grace  of  tradition  and 
the  feeling  of  history.  Even  the  Catholic 
Church,  if  only  it  could  see  that  Catholic  and 
Eoman  are  inconsistent  and  mutually  destruc- 
tive terms,  would  have  the  great  claim  on  our 
gratitude  that  it  has  kept  alive  the  idea  of  the 
identity  of  the  Christian  consciousness  and  the 
continuity  of  the  Christian  Church.  "  No  man 
can  be  more  wise  than  destiny ; "  let  us  catch 
the  tolerant  spirit  of  history.  The  sixteenth 
century,  in  English  ecclesiastical  matters,  was 
the  century  of  Reformation,  the  seventeenth 
the  century  of  separation,  the  eighteenth  the 
century  of  toleration,  the  nineteenth  the  cen- 
tury of  religious  equality.     Some  of  us  believe 

Q 


242  INDEPENDENTS  AND 

and  desire  that  the  twentieth  century  may- 
prove  to  be  that  of  reunion.  But  we  do  not 
quarrel  with  our  forefathers,  nor  condemn  the 
past.  Without  the  experience  of  separation, 
the  partial  liberty  of  toleration,  the  successful 
assertion  of  the  right  of  all  religious  doctrines 
to  equal  freedom  for  self-development,  there 
would  have  been  no  hope  for  us  of  a  Reformed 
Catholic  Church. 

VI 

The  word  "  toleration "  has  had  an  interest- 
ing history  in  English  religious  thought.  The 
Separatists  talked  of  matters  in  doctrine  and 
Church  practice  they  could  not  tolerate,  and 
we  understand  what  they  meant.  Some  things 
are  not  to  be  suppressed  by  the  magistrate,  but 
in  themselves  they  seem  to  us  intolerable.  The 
Independents  of  the  Westminster  Assembly  de- 
manded toleration — that  is,  liberty  of  preaching 
and  worship  without  the  interference  of  the  civil 
law.  The  eighteenth  century  worshipped  the  very 
word  "  toleration,"  i.e.  what  Milton  claimed  as 
"the  liberty  of  unlicensed  printing" — the  right 
of  men  to  utter  all  that  God  has  allowed  them 
to  think.  In  the  nineteenth  century  there  was 
a  double  reaction  against  the  word.     Coleridge, 


CONGREGATION  ALISTS  243 

who  for  a  short  period  was  a  Unitarian  preacher, 
discovered  that  toleration  was  not  a  religion, 
was  not  even  a  force,  was  only  a  void  that  force 
might  fill ;  and  he  quoted,  approvingly,  Jacobi's 
words — that  the  only  true  tolerance  was  the 
bearing  of  the  intolerance  of  others.  The  Non- 
conformists, under  Edward  Miall,  grew  to  resent 
legal  toleration ;  it  seemed  to  imply  a  right  in 
some  thinkers  to  extend  permission  of  thought 
to  others ;  to  tolerate  a  man  who  has  equal 
rights  with  yourself  is  to  insult  him.  But  time 
has  brought  a  more  equable  mood.  Legal 
toleration  has  begotten  the  tolerant  habit  in 
men  ;  patience  with  those  from  whom  we  differ ; 
the  love  of  understanding  them ;  the  sense  of 
appreciation ;  the  search  after  truth  by  the 
co-ordination  of  varieties.  Phillips  Brooks  has 
done  good  service  by  his  little  book  on  this 
subject.  Tolerance,  as  a  grace  of  character, 
will  abide  when  toleration  has  become  an 
archaism. 

VII 

The  Catholicity  of  to-day  recognises  that 
"  no  prophecy  of  Scripture  is  of  private  inter- 
pretation ; "  but  that   any  and  every  "  private 


244  INDEPENDENTS  AND 

interpretation  "  contributes  to  full  understaud- 
ino^.  The  National  Council  of  the  Evano;elical 
Free  Churches  is  perfectly  frank  in  its  welcome 
of  diversities  of  judgment  in  Church  polity  and 
the  government  of  Churches.  There  is  no 
sinister  afterthought  among  us,  no  complacent 
dream  that  we  shall  bring  our  brethren  over  to 
our  way  if  only  they  will  let  us  talk  to  them. 
We  are  like  Chaucer's  schoolmaster — 

"  Gladly  would  we  learn,  and  gladly  also  teach  " — 

and  we  are  equally  at  home  in  speaking  and  in 
listening.  Our  experience  that  it  is  possible 
and  eminently  edifying  for  men  of  different 
denominations  to  talk  to  one  another  with  no 
thought  of  proselytising,  to  work  together  with- 
out reckoning  up  what  Churches  are  most 
increasing  their  numbers  by  the  co-operation, 
encourages  us  to  believe  that  we  have  found 
the  way  to  unity  and  Catholicity  by  federation. 
I  am  often  asked — What  of  the  future  of  your 
federated  Churches  ?  Will  the  various  de- 
nominations fuse  and  combine  their  Church 
doctrines  into  a  new  and  comprehensive  polity, 
w^hich  shall  conserve  all  of  truth  which  each 
has  to  give,  and  shall  discard  everything  which 


CONGREGATION  ALISTS  2  4  5 

is  of  sectional  significance  only  ?  Will  there 
not  emerge  a  new  star,  "  not  Jove,  nor  Mars," 
but  "  some  fisiured  flame  which  blends,  trans- 
cends  them  all  ? "  Sometimes  the  question  is 
put  wistfully,  by  men  who  long  that  such  a 
Church  might  be ;  sometimes  a  little  mis- 
chievously,  as  if  the  inevitable  drift  of  things 
would  set  the  Council  on  constitution  building, 
and  then  disintegration,  working  to  disruption, 
would  begin.  Let  me  answer  the  question  by 
another — Will  the  United  States  ever  be  a 
kingdom  ?  Do  the  Americans  want  uniformity 
of  State  government  ?  Are  they  not  a  nation 
as  they  are  ? 

Let  me  frankly  say — I  do  not  think  the 
National  Council  will  ever  grow  into  a  Church, 
uniform  in  discipline,  representative  of  a  single 
polity.  Congregationalism  and  Presbyterianism 
are  not  incompatible  ;  and  Episcopacy,  the  con- 
stitutional authority,  for  certain  purposes,  of 
the  specially  gifted  and  experienced  man,  might 
coexist  with  Congregational  autonomy  and  re- 
presentative government  of  the  united  Churches 
for  common  ends.  l>ut  history  abides,  and  the 
past  lives  in  to-day.  The  city  of  God  has 
twelve  sates,  and  names  written  thereon  which 


246  INDEPENDENTS  AND 

are  the  names  of  the  twelve  tribes  of  the 
children  of  Israel ;  and  the  wall  of  the  city 
has  twelve  foundations,  and  on  them  twelve 
names  of  the  twelve  Apostles  of  the  Lamb. 
You  may  call  a  Federation  a  Church,  but  its 
constituents  will  be  Churches,  and  the  Churches 
will  be  of  various  types. 

When  John  Robinson  and  his  contemporaries 
spoke  in  recognition  of  those  parish  assemblies, 
where  godly  life  and  pastoral  discipline  pre- 
vailed, as  true  Churches  of  God — for  which 
graciousness  they  have  been  stigmatised  as 
semi-Separatists  —  they  were  introducing  the 
idea  of  denominational  Churches.  They  did 
not  use  the  term ;  indeed,  it  has  not  yet  come 
into  vogue,  although  that  is  really  the  Free 
Church  conception  of  to-day.  Probably  the 
reason  of  this  reserve  was  that  there  was  no 
authority  for  denominational  Churches  in  the 
New  Testament.  Constitutional  Cono-res-ation- 
alists  used  to  affirm  confidently  that  the  word 
Church  was  used  in  the  New  Testament  in  only 
two  senses — the  gathered  municipal  Church, 
and  the  whole  family  in  heaven  and  earth. 
We  know  now  that  the  idea  of  a  National 
Church  was  not  alien  to  primitive  Christianity. 


CONGREGATIONALISTS  247 

Not  only  does  Stephen  speak  of  "  the  church 
in  the  wilderness ; "  the  Revised  Version  of 
Acts  ix.  31  reads — "So  the  church  through- 
out all  Judsea  and  Galilee  and  Samaria  had 
peace,  being  edified  ;  and  walking  in  the  fear 
of  the  Lord  and  in  the  comfort  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  was  multiplied."  This  is  a  most  im- 
portant reading ;  it  undoubtedly  represents  a 
widely  adopted  primitive  text,  probably  the 
primitive  text.  The  Apostles  did  not  think 
it  necessary  to  remodel  the  constitution  of 
the  Jewish  religious  society,  because  in  Asia 
Minor  and  Macedonia  and  Achaia  the  Hellenic 
municipal  tradition  had  been  followed.  \Ye 
now  recognise  that  there  were  three  primitive 
uses  of  the  word  Church — the  gathered  muni- 
cipal Church,  which  was  the  most  widely 
adopted  form ;  the  National  Church,  sanctioned 
by  Jewish  history ;  the  Catholic,  dear  to  every 
Christian  heart.  Is  the  fourth  use,  which  per- 
sons have  been  driven  into  by  the  growth  into 
freedom  and  fellowship  of  the  foremost  nations 
of  Christendom,  therefore  excluded  ?  First,  it 
is  to  be  noticed  that  men  have  been  impelled 
to  it  by  the  spirit  of  loyalty  to  Jesus  Christ, 
and  the  spirit  of  love  to  the  brethren  ;  that  is 


248  INDEPENDENTS  AND 

to  say,  by  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord,  who  has 
promised  to  be  with  His  people  to  the  end. 
And  then  it  may  be  asked,  reverently  and  con- 
fidingly— Is  not  such  action  within  the  scope 
of  the  promise  :  "  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  What 
things  soever  ye  shall  bind  on  earth  shall  be 
bound  in  heaven  ;  and  w^hat  things  soever  ye 
shall  loose  on  earth  shall  be  loosed  in  heaven  "  ? 
Congregationalists  of  the  last  veneration  freed 
themselves  from  the  notion,  which  prevailed 
from  Cart  Wright  and  Browne  down,  that  the 
method  of  Church  government  was  among  the 
things  delivered  by  Christ  to  His  Apostles,  to 
be  by  them  delivered  to  His  people,  for  every 
nation  and  for  every  age.  But  they  had  an 
uneasy  feeling  that  they  were  making  too  light 
of  Church  discipline  in  dismissing  Church  polity 
as  of  comparatively  little  moment.  I  confess 
to  the  gladness  with  wdiich  I  shelter  myself 
within  the  scope  of  His  large  w^ords.  He  has 
not  said — "I  bind  you;"  He  has  said,  "Bind 
yourselves."  And  we  are  secure  from  fatal 
blundering  by  the  virtue  of  His  name.  "  Where 
two  or  three  are  gathered  together  in  My  name, 
there  am  I  in  the  midst  of  them." 


CONGREGATIONALISTS  249 

VIII 

The  condition  of  the  people  of  England,  about 
which  Carlyle  began  to  write  when  he  ceased  to 
be  merely  a  literary  man  and  became  a  teacher, 
has  been  an  increasing  burden  to  the  heart  and 
conscience  of  the  Churches  for  more  than  half  a 
century.  We  are  as  tired  of  unqualified  compe- 
tition in  religion  as  in  trade,  we  are  sick  of  class 
Churches — Methodism  for  the  poor,  Congrega- 
tionalism and  Presbyterianism  for  the  middle 
classes,  the  Church  of  England  for  the  aristo- 
cracy. There  is  an  honest  desire  in  all  the 
denominations  to  bring  the  reality  and  blessed- 
ness of  Christian  fellowship  to  the  whole 
people ;  we  cannot  rest 

"  Till  we  have  set  Jerusalem 
In  Elngland's  fair  and  pleasant  land." 

This  is  the  motive  compelling  Church  reformers 
of  various  schools  to  press  for  freedom  of  action, 
and  some  measure  of  lay  government,  within 
the  State  Church.  This  has  been  the  most 
urgent  and  the  most  sacred  motive  leading  the 
Free  Churches  to  federate.  When  Dr.  Chalmers 
proclaimed,    while    he    was   a    minister    of   the 


2  50  INDEPENDENTS  AND 

Established  Church  of  Scotland,  that  volun- 
taryism was  insufficient  to  meet  the  spiritual 
needs  of  the  nation,  the  Congregationalists  and 
Baptists,  with  the  Scottish  Seceders,  contra- 
dicted him.  The  Methodists  went  on  their 
course  of  evangelisation  without  paying  any 
attention  to  him.  But  the  needs  have  proved 
too  vast,  the  problem  is  too  complicated  for  any 
denomination,  or  even  for  them  all,  working 
without  concert  and  the  stimulus  of  union. 
The  Methodists 

"  Laugh  at  impossibilities 
And  say,  it  shall  be  done  : " 

but  they  do  not  laugh  at  this.  The  Independent 
specific  for  sanitation — let  every  Church  keep  its 
own  doorstep  clean,  and  instruct  others  to  do 
the  same — is  not  sufficient,  for  the  very  soil  is 
polluted,  and  disease  is  in  the  air.  The  annual 
growth  of  population  has  been  far  in  advance 
of  the  aggregate  extension  of  all  the  Churches. 
Great  towns  have  been  increasing  in  progressive 
ratio,  and  the  new  neighbourhoods  are  not  pro- 
vided for.  The  villaQ;es  and  hamlets  are  under 
a  wasting  sickness,  and  the  Churches  have  shared 
in  the  decline.     The  denominations  have  had 


CONGREGATIONALISTS  2  5 1 

little  heart  to  face  the  problem,  so  great  is  the 
disproportion  between  the  resources  in  men  and 
opportunities  of  any  one  of  them  and  the 
national  needs.  And,  meanwhile,  the  sense  of 
nationality  —  national  character,  national  re- 
sponsibility, national  solidarity — has  been  grow- 
ing in  depth  as  well  as  in  extent.  Patriotism 
has  been  taking  on  a  new  meaning  :  it  is  not 
British  lionism,  nor  spread-eagleism ;  the  clam- 
our of  the  saloon  rises  and  falls,  but  ever  there 
is  an  undertone,  "  the  still,  sad  music  of 
humanity,"  the  cry  of  the  Christian  heart.  We 
used  to  discuss,  academically,  whether  there 
could  be  such  a  thing  as  a  national  Christianity  ; 
we  have  learned  too  well  that  there  is  such  a 
thing  as  national  ungodliness.  And  to  meet 
the  demands  of  national  brotherhood,  we  have 
invoked  the  whole  fellowship  of  the  Evangelical 
Free  Churches  ;  we  are  organising  voluntaryism, 
persuaded  that  it  will  be  efficient  when  it  is  no 
longer  impulsive,  sporadic,  sectarian,  but  co- 
operative, constant,  an  accepted  purpose,  made 
wise  and  far-reaching  by  common  counsel. 
There  is  a  deep  solemnity,  as  of  "  the  burden 
of  the  Lord,"  underlying  the  jubilance  of  the 
National     Council     of    the     Evangelical     Free 


25  2  INDEPENDENTS  AND 

Churches.  In  their  forecast  of  the  future  there 
may  be  perceived  an  increasing  sense  of  responsi- 
bility, a  larger  patience,  a  firmer  courage,  more 
self-forgetful  sacrifice,  and  the  promise  of  a  rich 
reward. 

There  has  been  a  simultaneous  mission  for 
England ;  the  beginning,  not  the  completion,  of 
combined     evanorelistic     effort.       Free     Church 

o 

parishes  are  being  organised  in  industrial 
centres.  It  is  beinsj  considered  how  the  Free 
Churches  may  unitedly  sustain  one,  and  in 
thinly-populated  districts  only  one,  resident 
pastor  within  easy  reach  of  every  hamlet  in  the 
land.  The  motive  is  simple  ;  these  churches 
have  only  as  their  aim  the  religious  well-being 
of  the  people.  They  know  that  hitherto  Christ's 
spirit  has  led  as  well  as  prompted  them,  and 
they  are  not  anxious  for  the  morrow.  They 
believe  the  future  is  with  them  ;  they  have  the 
promise  of  "  the  morning  star," 

In  laying  out  my  plan  for  these  Lectures,  in 
preparing  and  delivering  them,  I  have  not  tried 
merely  to  glorify  Congregationalism.  I  have 
been  quite  as  anxious  to  shew  what  it  has 
received  from  others  as  what  it  has  given  to 


co:n  grectATIon  alists  2  5  3 

others  ;  its  obligation,  as  well  as  its  contribution, 
to  the  national  life  for  three  centuries.  It  has 
had  a  history  of  strenuous  endurance  and  fidelity 
to  its  own  central  constitutive  idea,  but  it  has 
also  been  enriched  from  many  external  sources. 
There  has  been  no  Church  in  the  land  from 
which  it  has  not  learned  something,  no  great 
religious  awakening  which  has  not  brought  it 
light  and  impulse.  The  church  system  is  to  be 
estimated  not  less  by  its  readiness  to  receive 
instruction  from  all  quarters  than  by  its  own 
simple,  sufficient  testimony.  If  it  began  in 
separation,  it  has  ended  in  fellowship.  To 
borrow  Tennyson's  image,  it  has 

"  Stood  four-square  to  every  wind  that  blows," 

and  the  benediction  of  that  attitude  has  been  as 
marked  as  the  courage  of  it.  For  every  wind 
has  brought  some  fertilising  influence ;  and  in 
the  Christian  comity  it  is  blessed  both  to  give 
and  to  receive. 


INDEX 


Aggekgate  Independency,  43 
Agreement,     The    Happy.      See 

Happy  Union 
Ainsworth,  Henry,  his  Calvinism, 

23 
American  Congregationalism,  231 
Anti-State    Church    Association, 

178 
Apostolicity    of     Congregational 

Churches,  191 
Arnold,  Thomas,  195 
Ashley,  Mr.,  of  Frankfort,  50 
Associations,     Voluntary     versus 

Presb3'teries,  94 

Baillie,  Robert,  on  the  Scottish 
army,  90  ;  on  toleration,  103 

Balfour,  Mr.  A.  J.,  on  Erastian- 
ism,  227 

Bancroft's  revolt  from  Erastian- 
ism,  61 

Baptists  and  Congregationalists 
in  England  and  America,  236 

Barrowe,  Henry,  on  the  Church 
meeting,  78 

Baxter,  Richard,  his  love-story, 
27  ;  on  the  lay-eldership,  93  ; 
on  Fundamentals,  109;  "lazy 
Separatists,"  144;  on  Discipline 
in  the  Independent  Churches, 
145  ;  on  the  Primitive  Churches, 
147 


Beckett,  Rev.  W.  H.,  on  the 
continuity  of  Lollardry,  47 

Bilney's  recantation,  76 

Binney,  Kev.  T.,  on  the  State 
Church  system,  180 

Board  of  the  Three  Denomina- 
tions, 114 

Borgeaud,  M.,  on  Congrega- 
tionalism and  Democracy,  38 

Bradbury,  Thomas,  Salters'  Hall 
Conference,  118;  occasional 
conformity,  137 

Bright,  Mr.  John,  and  Individual- 
ism, 182 

Broad  Church,  195 

Browne,  Robert,  68 

Brownist  plea  for  mercy  and 
charity,  1 593,  33 


Calvinism,  power  of,  21  ;  theo- 
logical Calvinism,  22,  160; 
ecclesiastical  Calvinism,  23 

Cartwright,  Thomas,  on  the  min- 
istry and  Discipline,  25 

Catholicity  of  Church,  Congre- 
gational conception  of,  192 ; 
catholicity  of  Independents  in 
17th  century,  220;  modern 
conception  of  catholicity,  23S 

Chapel,  use  of  word  in  the  iSth 
century,  165 


256 


INDEX 


Charles  II.,  Declarations  of  In- 
dulgence, 133 

Church,  Browne's  definition  of, 
192;  generous  use  of  word  in 
Puritan  controversy,  61.  See 
Denominational  Churches  and 
New  Testament 

Church  of  England  a  Presbyterian 
establishment,  85 

Clergy,  English  Church,  their 
attitude  to  Liberal  measure  ■•, 
180 

Commonalty  (Christian)  and 
Congregationalism,  221 

Compact.  See  Mayfloiver  and 
Borgeaud 

Conformity,  occasional,  137 

Congregationalism,  primitive  form 
of  Church  government,  47; 
inchoate  Congregationalism 
and  Lollardry,  48  ;  in  Frank- 
fort, 50 ;  in  England  under 
Mary,  59 ;  under  Elizabeth, 
64  ;  Biblical  basis  of  Congre- 
gationalism, 81 

Congregational  Independency,  43 

Congregational  Union,  209 

Congregational  Union  lecture,  239 

Corporation  Act,  135  ;  repeal  of, 
169 

Council,  National  Free  Church, 
244 

Councils,  Congregational,  207 ; 
English  municipal,  175 

Covenants,  Church,  79,  113 

Coverdale,  his  use  of  the  word 
"  Congregation,"  60  ;  his  timi- 
dity, 66 

Cowper,  William,  on  Test  and 
Corporation  Acts,  139 

Crisp,  Dr.  Tobias,  116 

Cromwell,  on  the  Independents,  35 


Dale,  Dr.  R.  W.,  on  Church 
meeting,  78 ;  Headship  of 
Christ,  202 

Dalrymple,  Sir  John,  on  faction, 
176 

Defoe,  Daniel,  137 

Defoe  Memorial  Church  case, 
119 

Democracy  and  Congregational- 
ism, 37,  81 

Denominational  Churches,  246 

Disabilities  of  Dissenters  re- 
moved, 169 

Discipline,  49,  55,  235.  See 
also  Baxter 

Doddridge,  Philip,  149 ;  on 
Church  establishment,  179 

Donatism,  Puritan  dread  of,  72 

Dunning,  Dr.  A.  E.,  on  Half- 
way Covenant,  233 

Eighteenth    century,    decay  of 

religion  in,  154 
Erastianism    of    the    Established 

Church    of    England,   23,   226. 

See  Balfour,  Bancroft,  and  Lord 

Rosehery 
Erastians         in         Westminster 

Assembly,  222 
Excommunication      among      the 

Independents,  224 

Faction,  Independency  not 
favourable  to,  224 

Fitz's  Church,  64 

Fletcher,  Rev.  Joseph,  43 

Frankfort,  "Troubles  in,"  21, 
"  Stir  and  Strife  in,"  50 

Frankfort  Church,  drift  to  Con- 
gregationalism, 50 ;  essential 
Erastianism  of,  57 


INDEX 


257 


Gbindal,  Archbishop,  13 

Half-way  Covenant,  232 

Halley,  Dr.,  129 

Harcourt,  Sir  William,  183 

Heresy,  freedom  of  Independents 
from,  223 

Hetherington,  Dr.,  1 00 

High  Church  Congregationalists, 
190 

Hunter,  the  Rev.  J.,  on  Arch- 
bishop Sandys,  9 ;  on  Independ- 
ents and  toleration,  99 

Huntingdon,  Countess  of,  132 ; 
Countess  of  Huntingdon's  con- 
nexion, 160 

Hymn-Books,  Watts's  and  Wes- 
ley's, 164 

Hymns,  Dr.  Watts's,  152 

Independent  congregations  under 
Charles  II.  described,  218 

Independents,  extreme  orthodoxy 
of,  112 

Individualism,  182  ;  Baptist  and 
Congregational  individualism, 
184;  individualism  and  theo- 
logy, 186 

Liberal    party   and    Dissenters, 

175 
Liberation  Society,  181 
Lollardry  and  Congregationalism, 

49 

London,  use  of  Test  and  Cor- 
poration Acts  by  Corporation 
of,  139 

Mansfield,  Lord,  140 
Martindale,  Adam,  95 
Maurice,  F.  D.,  195 
Mayflower  Compact,  80.    See  also 
Borgeaud 


Methodism,  156;  Methodism  and 
Separatism,  157;  Methodism 
and  Puritanism,  158  ;  Arminian 
and  Calvinistic  Methodism, 
160;  doctrine  of  the  Church, 
160 

Methodist,  Wesleyan,  Church,  157 

Miall,  Edward,  Nonconformist 
newspaper,  44  ;  Liberation 
Society,  181 

Milton,  John,  on  toleration,  106  ; 
on  liberty  for  thought,  1 28 

Morley  old  chapel,  Yorkshire, 
130 

Moulin,  Louis  du,  215 

National  needs,  Congregationa- 
lists and,  249 
Newman,  John  Henry,  188 
New    Testament     use     of    word 
"  Church,"  246 

Onslow,  Speaker,  on  Sir  John 
Dalrymp'e,  176 

Oriel  movement  and  Congrega- 
tionalism, 188 

Owen,  Dr.  John,  218 

Patronage,  Church  and  Noncon- 
formity, 131 
Peirce,  James,  of  Exeter,  117 
Penry,  John,  on  the  Elizabethan 
Church,  Gj  ;   Brownist  petition, 

33 

Persecution  of  Protestants  under 
Mary,  59  ;  persecution  of  Sepa- 
ratists under  Elizabeth,  64  ; 
persecution  by  Independents, 
46  ;  fidelity  of  common  people 
under  persecution,  75 

Presbyterian  Church  of  England 
and  English  Presbyterian 
Church,  122 

R 


258 


INDEX 


Presbyterianism  in  Westminster 
Assembly,  89,  96 ;  Scottish 
Presbyterianism  not  acceptable 
to  English  people,  93,  222 ; 
contrast  between  English  and 
Scottish  Presbyterianism,  121 
Presbyterians  and  Unitarians,  117 
Priesthood  of  Believers,  194 
Puritans,  characteristics  of,  26, 
29  ;  Puritans  and  Separatists, 
71  ;  differences  between  Puri- 
tans and  Separatists  on  purity 
of  fellowship,  72 ;  rights  of 
members,  74 ;  creeds  and 
covenants,  79 
Purity  of  Church  fellowship,  not 
a  Puritan  doctrine,  73  ;  a  dis- 
tinguishing Separatist  doctrine, 
74  ;  maintained  in  Fitz's 
Church,  64  ;  modern  prevalence 
of  the  doctrine,  230 

Recantations  under  persecution, 

76 
Reform  Bill,  172 
Reformed  Presbyterian  Church  in 

America,  30 
Registration  Acts,  of  marriages, 

169 ;    of    births    and    deaths, 

170 
Robinson,  John,  patriotism,  35  ; 

on    Church    meeting,    77 ;    his 

semi-Separatism,  246 
Rosebery,  Lord,  his  Erastianism, 

23 

Saoramknts  among  Independ- 
ents, 187 

Salters'  Hall  Conference,  118 

Sanctity  of  the  Church,  Congrega- 
tional conception  of,  192 

Sandys,  Archbishop,  his  reform- 


ing zeal,  4 ;  his  preferments, 
6  ;  his  Apologia,  9 

Sandys,  Sir  Edwin,  Europce 
Speculum,  20 

Schism  Bill,  137  ;  its  influence  on 
English  Church  relations,  179 

Separatism  and  Puritanism,  71  ; 
dangers  of  Separatism,  151  ; 
early  Separatism  and  modern 
Congregationalism,  192 

Separatists,  31;  Separatists  and 
Independents,  122 

Shaw,  Dr.,  on  the  Church  of  the 
Commonwealth,  85  ;  on  tolera- 
tion in  the  Westminster  As- 
sembly, 99 

Socialism,  modern,  184 

State  Church  Congregationalism 
in  America,  231 

Synods.     See  Councils 

Test  Act,  136  ;  repeal  of,  169 

Toleration,  80,  99,  104 ;  Inde- 
pendents' scheme  of  toleration, 
106;  Act  of  Toleration,  127; 
toleration  and  tolerance,  242 

Tories,  attitude  of,  to  Noncon- 
formity, 134 

Toxteth  Park  Chapel,  Liverpool, 
130 

Trevelyan,  Mr.  G.  M.,  48 

Uniformity,  Act  of,  134 

Union,  Happy,  1 16 

Unitarianism,  117.  See  Presby- 
terians and  Unitarians 

Unitarians  in  England  and  in 
America,  122 

Unity  of  Church,  Congregational 
conception  of,  192 

University  of  London,  17 1 

University  tests  abolished,  169 


INDEX 


259 


Voluntary  Controversy  in  Scot- 
land, 186 


Walkee,  Dr.  G.  Leon,  Half-way 

Covenant,  232 
Ward,    W.     G.,      "Ideal     of    a 

Christian  Church,"  189 
Watts,  Isaac,  148 


Wesley,  John,  on  Independents, 
144  ;  Puritanism  of  John  Wes- 

Wesley,  Samuel,  151 

Westminster  Assembly,  90,  97; 
plea  for  liberty  of  conscience, 
98  ;  dissenting  brethren,  100 

Wilkins,  Bishop  of  Chester,  132 

Williams,  Dr.  Daniel,  1 16 


THE   END 


Printed  by  Ballantynk,  Hanson  i5r»  Co. 
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